L  SCIEMCE  SER 


THE 

Practical  Science  Series 

The  following  Vols,  are  now  ready  or  in  the  Press : — 

BALLOONS,  AIRSHIPS,  AND  FLYING  MACHINES. 
By  Gertrude  Bacon. 

MOTORS    AND    MOTORING.      By    Professor   Harry 
Spooner. 

RADIUM.     By  Dr.  Hampson. 

METEOROLOGY;    or,    Weather    Explained.       By    J. 
Gordon  MTherson,  M.A.,  LL.D. 

Others  in  Preparation 


'?  1  2  1984 


THE  LIBRARY  OF  THE 

UNIVERSITY  OF 

NORTH  CAROLINA 

AT  CHAPEL  HILL 


ENDOWED  BY  THE 
DIALECTIC  AND  PHILANTHROPIC 
LIBRARY    SOCIETIES 

gCHOOL 


JH629.13 
Bacon 
c.    2 


The  Authoress,  her  Father,  and  Mr.  Spencer 
making  an  ascent. 


Frontispiece. 


BALLOONS      ^co. 
AIRSHIPS  AND  FLYING 

MACHINES         l.0^ 

BY 

GERTRUDE   BACON 


NEW  YORK 

DODD,  MEAD  &  COMPANY 

LONDON:    T.   C.   &  E.  C.   JACK 

1905' 


CONTENTS 


PAGE 
CHAP. 

I.  THE   ORIGIN  OF  BALLOONING      ...  9 

II.  THE  COMING  OF  THE  GAS  BALLOON        .  23 

III.  FAMOUS  BALLOON  VOYAGES  OF  THE  PAST  38 

IV.  THE  BALLOON  AS   A   SCIENTIFIC   INSTRU- 

MENT       6? 

V.  THE  BALLOON   IN  WARFARE        ...  69 

VI.  THE  AIRSHIP 84 

VII.  THE  FLYING  MACHINE  .....  105 

VIII.  CONCLUSION 119 


Digitized  by  the  Internet  Archive 

in  2011  with  funding  from 

University  of  North  Carolina  at  Chapel  Hill 


http://www.archive.org/details/balloonsairshipsOObaco 


BALLOONS,   AIRSHIPS,   AND 
FLYING  MACHINES 

CHAPTER  I 

THE  ORIGIN  OF  BALLOONING 

One  November  night  in  the  year  1782,  so  the 
story  runs,  two  brothers  sat  over  their  winter 
fire  in  the  little  French  town  of  Annonay, 
watching  the  grey  smoke-wreaths  from  the 
hearth  curl  up  the  wide  chimney.  Their  names 
were  Stephen  and  Joseph  Montgolfier,  they 
were  papermakers  by  trade,  and  were  noted 
as  possessing  thoughtful  minds  and  a  deep 
interest  in  all  scientific  knowledge  and  new 
discovery.  Before  that  night  —  a  memor- 
able night,  as  it  was  to  prove — hundreds  of 
millions  of  people  had  watched  the  rising 
smoke-wreaths  of  their  fires  without  drawing 
any  special  inspiration  from  the  fact ;  but 
on  this  particular  occasion,  as  Stephen,  the 
younger  of  the  brothers,  sat  and  gazed  at  the 
familiar  sight,  the  question  flashed  across  his 
mind,  "  What  is  the  hidden  power  that  makes 
those  curling  smoke-wreaths  rise  upwards,  and 


10  BALLOONS   AND   FLYING   MACHINES 

could  I  not  employ  it  to  make  other  things 
rise  also  ? " 

Then  and  there  the  brothers  resolved  on  an 


Medallion  showing  Bkothees  Montgolfier. 

experiment.  They  made  themselves  a  small 
fire  of  some  light  fuel  in  a  little. tin  tray  or 
chafing-dish,  and  over  the  smoke  of  it  they 
held  a  large  paper-bag.  And  to  their  delight 
they  saw  the  bag  fill  out  and  make  a  feeble 


THE   ORIGIN   OF   BALLOONING  11 

attempt  to  rise.  They  were  surely  on  the 
eve  of  some  great  invention ;  and  yet,  try  as 
they  would,  their  experiment  would  not  quite 
succeed,  because  the  smoke  in  the  bag  always 
became  too  cool  before  there  was  enough  in  it 
to  raise  it  from  the  table.  But  presently, 
while  they  were  thus  engaged,  a  neighbour  of 
theirs,  a  widow  lady,  alarmed  by  seeing  smoke 
issuing  from  their  window,  entered  the  room, 
and  after  watching  their  fruitless  efforts  for 
some  while,  suggested  that  they  should  fasten 
the  tray  on  to  the  bottom  of  the  bag.  This 
was  done,  with  the  happy  result  that  the  bag 
immediately  rose  up  to  the  ceiling  ;  and  in 
this  humble  fashion  the  first  of  all  balloons 
sailed  aloft. 

That  night  of  1782,  therefore,  marks  the  first 
great  step  ever  made  towards  the  conquest  of 
the  sky.  But  to  better  understand  the  history 
of  "  Aeronautics  " — a  word  that  means  "  the 
sailing  of  the  air " — we  must  go  back  far  be- 
yond the  days  of  the  Montgolfier  brothers. 
For  in  all  times  and  in  all  ages  men  have 
wanted  to  fly.  David  wished  for  the  wings 
of  a  dove  to  fly  away  and  be  at  rest,  and  since 
his  time,  and  before  it,  how  many  have  not 
longed  to  take  flight  and  sail  away  in  the 
boundless,  glorious  realms  above,  to  explore 
the  fleecy  clouds,  and  to  float  free  in  the  blue 
vault  of  heaven. 

And  since  birds  achieve  this  feat  by  means 
of  wings,  man's  first  idea  was  to  provide  him- 


12  BALLOONS   AND    FLYING   MACHINES 

self  with  wings  also.  But  here  he  was  at  once 
doomed  to  disappointment.  It  is  very  certain 
that  by  his  own  natural  strength  alone  a  man 
will  never  propel  himself  through  the  air  with 
wings  like  a  bird,  because  he  is  made  quite 
differently.  A  bird's  body  is  very  light  com- 
pared with  its  size.  The  largest  birds  in 
existence  weigh  under  thirty  pounds.  A 
man's  body,  on  the  contrary,  is  very  heavy 
and  solid.  The  muscles  that  work  a  bird's 
wing  are  wonderfully  powerful  and  strong,  far 
stronger  in  proportion  than  the  muscles  of  a 
man's  arm.  To  sustain  his  great  weight  in 
the  air,  a  man  of  eleven  stone  would  require  a 
pair  of  wings  nearly  twenty  feet  in  span. 
But  the  possession  of  such  mighty  wings 
alone  is  not  enough.  He  must  also  possess 
bodily  strength  to  keep  them  in  sufficient 
motion  to  prevent  him  from  falling,  and  for 
this  he  would  require  at  least  the  strength  of 
a  horse. 

Such  strength  a  man  has  never  possessed,  or 
can  ever  hope  to ;  but  even  as  it  is,  by  long 
practice  and  great  effort,  men  have  succeeded 
at  different  times,  not  exactly  in  flying,  but 
in  helping  themselves  along  considerably  by 
means  of  wings.  A  man  is  said  to  have  flown 
in  this  way  in  Rome  in  the  days  of  Nero.  A 
monk  in  the  Middle  Ages,  named  Elmerus, 
it  is  stated,  flew  about  a  furlong  from  the  top 
of  a  tower  in  Spain,  another  from  St.  Mark's 
steeple  in  Venice,  and  another  from  Nurem- 


THE    ORIGIN    OF   BALLOONING  13 

burg.  But  the  most  successful  attempt  ever 
made  in  this  direction  was  accomplished  about 
200  years  ago  by  a  French  locksmith  of  the 
name  of  Besnier.  He  had  made  for  himself  a 
pair  of  light  wooden  oars,  shaped  like  the 
double  paddle  of  a  canoe,  with  cup-like  blades 
at  either  end.  These  he  placed  over  his 
shoulders,  and  attached  also  to  his  feet,  and 


Besnier  and  his  Oars. 

then  casting  himself  off  from  some  high  place, 
and  violently  working  his  arms  and  legs  so  as 
to  buffet  the  air  downwards  with  his  paddles, 
he  was  able  to  raise  himself  by  short  stages 
from  one  height  to  another,  or  skim  lightly 
over  a  field  or  river.  It  is  said  that  subse- 
quently Besnier  sold  his  oars  to  a  mountebank, 
who  performed  most  successfully  with  them 
at  fairs  and  festivals. 

But  it  was  soon  clear  that  the  art  of  human 


14  BALLOONS    AND    FLYING   MACHINES 

flight  was  not  to  be  achieved  by  such  means ; 
and  when  men  found  that  they  were  unable  to 
soar  upwards  by  their  own  bodily  strength 
alone,  they  set  about  devising  some  apparatus 
or  machine  which  should  carry  them  aloft. 
Many  ancient  philosophers  bent  their  minds 
to  the  inventing  of  a  machine  for  this  purpose. 
One  suggested  that  strong  flying  birds,  such 
as  eagles  or  vultures,  might  be  harnessed  to 
a  car,  and  trained  to  carry  it  into  the  sky. 
Another  gravely  proposed  the  employment  of 
"  a  little  imp  " — for  in  those  days  the  existence 
of  imps  and  demons  was  most  firmly  believed 
in.  A  third  even  went  so  far  as  to  give  an 
actual  recipe  for  flying,  declaring  that  "  if  the 
eggs  of  the  larger  description  of  swans,  or 
leather  balls  stitched  with  fine  thongs,  be  filled 
with  nitre,  the  purest  sulphur,  quicksilver, 
or  kindred  materials  which  rarefy  by  their 
caloric  energy,  and  if  they  externally  resemble 
pigeons,  they  will  easily  be  mistaken  for  flying 
animals."  (!) 

The  first  man  who  appeared  to  have  any 
inkling  of  the  real  way  of  solving  the  problem 
of  a  "  flying  chariot,"  and  who  in  dim  fashion 
seems  to  have  foreshadowed  the  invention  of 
the  balloon,  was  that  wonderful  genius,  Roger 
Bacon,  the  Learned  Friar  of  Ilchester,  the 
inventor  or  re-inventor  of  gunpowder,  who 
lived  in  the  thirteenth  century.  He  had  an 
idea  —  an  idea  which  was  far  ahead  of  his 
times,  and  only  proved  to  be  true  hundreds 


THE    ORIGIN    OF   BALLOONING  15 

of  years  after  —  that  the  earth's  atmosphere 
was  an  actual  substance  or  "true  fluid,"  and 
as  such  he  supposed  it  to  have  an  upper 
surface  as  the  sea  has,  and  on  this  upper  sur- 
face he  thought  an  airship  might  float,  even 
as  a  boat  floats  on  the  top  of  the  water. 
And  to  make  his  airship  rise  upwards  to 
reach  this  upper  sea,  he  said  one  must  employ 
"  a  large  hollow  globe  of  copper  or  other 
similar  metal  wrought  extremely  thin,  to  have 
it  as  light  as  possible,  and  filled  with  ethereal 
air  or  liquid  fire." 

It  is  doubtful  whether  Bacon  had  very  clear 
ideas  of  what  he  meant  by  "ethereal  air." 
But,  whether  by  accident  or  insight,  he  had  in 
these  words  hit  upon  the  true  principle  of  the 
balloon — a  principle  only  put  into  practice  five 
centuries  later.  He  saw  that  a  body  would 
rise  upwards  through  the  air  if  it  were  filled 
with  something  fighter  than  air,  even  as  a 
body  will  rise  upwards  through  the  water  if  it 
is  made  of,  or  filled  with,  something  lighter 
than  water.  We  know  that  if  we  throw  an 
empty  bottle  tightly  corked  into  the  sea  it 
does  not  sink,  but  rises  upwards,  because  it  is 
filled  with  air,  which  is  lighter  than  water. 
In  the  same  way  exactly  a  light  bag  or  balloon 
which  is  filled  with  some  gas  which  is  lighter 
than  air  will  not  stay  on  the  surface  of  the 
ground,  but  will  rise  upwards  into  the  sky  to 
a  height  which  depends  upon  its  weight  and 
buoyancy. 


16  BALLOONS    AND   FLYING   MACHINES 

Later  philosophers  than  Bacon  came  to  the 
same  conclusion,  though  they  do  not  seem  to 
have  seen  matters  more  clearly.  As  recently 
as  1755  a  certain  learned  French  priest  actually 
suggested  that  since  the  air  on  the  top  of  high 
mountains  is  known  to  be  lighter  than  that  at 
an  ordinary  level,  men  might  ascend  to  these 
great  heights  and  bring  down  the  light  air  "  in 
constructions  of  canvas  or  cotton."  By  means 
of  this  air  he  then  proposed  to  fly  a  great 
machine,  which  he  describes,  and  which  seems 
to  have  been  as  large  and  cumbersome  as 
Noah's  Ark.  Needless  to  say,  the  worthy 
Father's  proposal  has  never  yet  been  put  into 
practice. 

But  it  is  time  now  that  we  return  to  the 
two  brothers  Montgolfier  and  their  paper-bag 
of  smoke.  Their  experiments  proved  at  once 
that  in  smoke  they  had  found  something 
which  was  lighter  than  air,  and  which  would, 
therefore,  carry  a  light  weight  upwards.  But 
of  what  this  something  was  they  had,  at  the 
time,  but  a  confused  idea.  They  imagined 
that  the  burning  fuel  they  had  used  had  given 
off  some  special  light  gas,  with  the  exact  nature 
of  which  they  were  unacquainted.  The  very 
word  gas,  be  it  here  said,  was  in  those  days 
almost  unknown,  and  of  different  gases,  their 
nature  and  properties,  most  people  had  but 
the  very  vaguest  notions. 

And  so  for  some  time  the  Montgolfiers 
and  their  followers  supposed  that  the  presence 


THE    ORIGIN    OF    BALLOONING  17 

of  this  mysterious  gas  was  necessary  to  the 
success  of  their  experiments,  and  they  were 
very  careful  about  always  using  special  kinds 
of  fuel,  which  they  supposed  gave  off  this  gas, 
to  inflate  their  bags.  Later  experiments 
proved,  however,  what  every  one  now  knows, 
that  the  paper -bag  rose,  not  because  of  the 
gases  given  off  by  the  fire,  but  by  reason  of 
the  hot  air  with  which  it  became  filled.  Nearly 
all  substances,  no  matter  how  solid,  expand 
more  or  less  under  the  influence  of  heat,  and 
air  expands  very  greatly  indeed.  By  thus 
expanding  heated  air  becomes  lighter  than 
the  surrounding  air,  and,  because  it  is  lighter, 
rises  upwards  in  the  atmosphere,  and  continues 
to  rise  until  it  has  once  more  regained  the 
average  temperature. 

Encouraged  by  the  success  of  their  first 
humble  experiment,  the  Montgolfiers  next 
tried  their  paper-bag  in  the  open  air,  when 
to  their  delight  it  sailed  upwards  to  a  height 
of  70  feet.  The  next  step  was  to  make  a 
much  larger  craft  of  600  cubic  feet  capacity 
and  spherical  in  shape,  which  they  called  a 
"  Balloon,"  because  it  was  in  appearance  like 
a  large,  round,  short-necked  vessel  used  in 
chemistry  which  was  technically  known  by 
that  name.  This  great  bag,  after  being  in- 
flated, became  so  powerful  that  it  broke  loose 
from  its  moorings,  and  floated  proudly  up- 
wards 600  feet  and  more,  and  came  down 
in  an  adjoining  field.     After  a  few  more  suc- 

B 


Montgolfiek's  Balloon. 


THE    ORIGIN    OF   BALLOONING  19 

cessful  trials  the  brothers  thought  that  the 
time  had  come  to  make  known  their  .new 
invention.  Accordingly  they  constructed  a 
great  balloon  of  35  feet  in  diameter,  and 
issued  invitations  to  the  public  to  come  and 
see  the  inflation.  This  was  successfully  made 
over  a  fire  of  chopped  straw  and  wool,  and 
the  giant  rose  up  into  the  sky  amid  the 
deafening  applause  of  a  huge  multitude,  and 
after  attaining  a  height  of  7000  feet,  fell  to 
the  ground  a  mile  and  a  half  away. 

The  news  of  this  marvellous  event  spread 
like  wild-fire  throughout  the  kingdom,  and 
soon  not  only  all  France,  but  all  Europe  also, 
was  ringing  with  the  tidings.  The  French 
Royal  Academy  of  Sciences  immediately 
invited  Stephen  Montgolfier  to  Paris,  and 
provided  him  with  money  to  repeat  his 
experiment.  He  accordingly  constructed  a 
yet  larger  machine,  which  stood  no  less  than 
72  feet  high,  had  it  most  magnificently 
painted  and  decorated  and  hung  with  flags, 
and  sent  it  up  at  Versailles  in  the  presence 
of  the  King  and  all  his  court. 

This  particular  balloon  is  noteworthy  as 
having  been  the  first  of  all  balloons  to  carry 
living  passengers  into  the  air.  They  were 
three  in  number,  a  sheep,  a  cock,  and  a  duck. 
Breathlessly  the  assembled  multitude  watched 
these  innocent  victims  placed  in  the  basket 
and  soar  calmly  and  majestically  above  their 
heads ;  and  eagerly  they  followed  the  balloon 


20  BALLOONS   AND   FLYING   MACHINES 

to  where  it  fell  half  a  mile  away  to  learn 
their  fate.  Would  they  have  been  suffocated 
in  those  upper  regions  of  the  air  which  no 
human  being  had  yet  explored,  or  would  they 
be  dashed  to  pieces  in  the  descent?  But 
they  found  the  trio  quite  uninjured  ;  the 
unimaginative  sheep  grazing  quietly,  and  the 
duck  cheerfully  quacking.  Forthwith  the  cry 
then  arose  that  it  was  time  for  a  man  to 
hazard  the  ascent,  and  King  Louis,  who,  like 
every  one  else,  was  vastly  excited  over  the 
wonder,  suggested  that  two  criminals  then 
lying  under  sentence  of  death  should  be  sent 
aloft. 

But  now  a  brave  French  gentleman — M. 
Pilatre  de  Rozier,  a  name  ever  to  be  remem- 
bered in  the  history  of  the  conquest  of  the  air 
— uprose  in  indignation.  "  Shall  vile  criminals 
have  the  first  glory  of  rising  into  the  sky ! " 
he  cried,  and  then  and  there  he  proudly 
claimed  for  himself  the  honour  of  being  first 
among  mortals  in  the  history  of  the  world 
to  sail  the  air.  His  courageous  resolve  was 
wildly  applauded,  and  forthwith  preparations 
were  commenced  for  the  new  venture.  A 
yet  larger  balloon  was  made,  in  height  as 
tall  as  a  church  tower,  with  a  mouth  15  feet 
across.  Around  the  mouth  was  fastened  a 
gallery  of  wicker-work,  three  feet  wide,  to  hold 
the  passengers,  and  below  all  was  slung  with 
chains  an  iron  brazier  of  burning  fuel. 

By  way  of  precaution,  when  all  was  com- 


THE    ORIGIN    OF   BALLOONING  21 

plete  De  Rozier  made  a  few  short  captive 
excursions,  the  balloon  being  fastened  to 
earth  by  a  rope.  But  all  proving  satisfactory, 
he  decided  to  hazard  a  "  right  away  "  trip  on 
the  21st  of  November  1783,  when  he  was  also 
to  be  accompanied  by  an  equally  courageous 
fellow-countryman,  the  Marquis  d'Arlandes. 
It  would  be  difficult  to  conceive  a  more  daring 
and  perilous  enterprise  than  these  two  brave 
Frenchmen  set  themselves.  They  were  to 
venture,  by  an  untried  way,  into  unknown 
realms  where  no  mortal  had  been  before ; 
they  were  to  entrust  their  lives  to  a  frail 
craft  whose  capabilities  had  never  yet  been 
tested,  and  at  a  giddy  height  they  were  to 
soar  aloft  with  an  open  fire,  which  at  any 
moment  might  set  light  to  the  inflammable 
balloon  and  hurl  them  to  destruction. 

Wild  indeed  was  the  applause  of  the  crowd 
as  the  mighty  craft,  after  due  inflation,  rose 
majestically  into  the  sky,  carrying  with  it  its 
two  brave  voyagers — 

the  first  that  ever  burst 
Into  that  silent  sea ; 

and  with  what  anxiety  was  its  course  followed 
as,  rising  rapidly  to  a  height  of  3000  feet,  it 
drifted  away  on  an  upper  current  which  bore 
it  right  over  the  city  of  Paris.  The  travellers 
themselves  experienced  various  excitements 
during  their  adventurous  trip.  They  had 
constantly  to  stir  the  fire   and  feed  it  with 


22 


BALLOONS    AND    FLYING   MACHINES 


fresh  fuel ;  they  had  also  with  wet  sponges 
continually  to  extinguish  the  flames  when 
the  light  fabric  from  time  to  time  ignited. 
At  one  period  they  feared  descending  into 
the  river  or  on  the  house-tops,  at  another 
a  sharp  shock  gave  them  the  impression  that 


An  Early  Hydrogen  Balloon. 

their  balloon  had  burst.  But  they  came 
safely  in  the  end  through  all  perils  and 
alarms,  descending  quietly,  after  a  voyage 
of  twenty-five  minutes'  duration,  five  miles 
from  their  starting-place. 

Thus  was   invented  and   perfected   in   the 
course  of  less  than  a  year  the  first  of  all  craft 


THE   ORIGIN    OF   BALLOONING  23 

which  carried  man  into  the  sky — the  Hot- 
Air  or  Montgolfier  Balloon.  To  this  day  large 
hot-air  balloons  inflated  by  the  same  methods 
employed  a  hundred  years  ago  occasionally 
take  passengers  aloft.  Indeed,  there  now 
seems  a  likelihood  that  the  use  of  the  Mont- 
golfier balloon  will  be  largely  revived  for 
military  purposes,  since,  with  modern  im- 
provements, it  would  appear  to  be  more 
quickly  and  easily  inflated  than  a  gas  balloon 
in  time  of  warfare.  With  miniature  hot-air 
balloons  we  are  all  familiar,  for  every  school- 
boy has  made  them  for  himself  of  coloured 
papers,  and  watched  them  float  away  on  the 
breeze  with  as  much  admiration  and  delight 
as  the  two  brothers  of  Annonay  watched  their 
bag  first  float  upwards  to  the  ceiling. 

But  almost  before  the  invention  of  the  hot- 
air  balloon  had  been  completed,  and  before 
Pilatre  de  Rozier  had  made  his  ascent,  a  rival 
craft  had  appeared  upon  the  scene,  to  which 
we  must  more  specially  refer  in  the  next 
chapter. 


CHAPTER    II 

THE    COMING    OF    THE    GAS    BALLOON 

During  the  time  of  which  we  are  speaking 
there  was  living  in  London  a  famous  chemist 
named  Henry  Cavendish.     He  was  the  son  of 


24  BALLOONS   AND    FLYING   MACHINES 

a  nobleman,  and  a  very  rich  man;  but  he 
shut  himself  up  entirely  from  the  world,  and 
devoted  his  whole  time  and  energies  to  the 
study  of  science.  So  afraid  was  he  of  being 
interrupted  in  his  work  that  he  lived  the  life 
of  a  hermit,  commanding  his  servants  to  keep 
out  of  his  sight  on  pain  of  dismissal,  and 
ordering  his  dinner  daily  by  means  of  a 
note  placed  on  the  hall  table.  In  the  year 
1760 — twenty-two  years  before  the  Mont- 
golfier  brothers  began  their  experiments — this 
eccentric  man  had  discovered  what  was  then 
known  as  "inflammable  air,"  but  what  we 
now  call  hydrogen  gas. 

Cavendish's  experiments  proved  that  hydro- 
gen is  the  lightest  of  all  known  substances, 
being  about  fourteen  times  lighter  than  at- 
mospheric air  ;  and  soon  after  he  had  made 
known  his  researches,  it  occurred  to  a  certain 
Dr.  Black  of  Edinburgh  that  if  a  sufficiently 
thin  and  light  bladder  were  filled  with  this 
"  inflammable  air "  it  would  rise  upwards. 
Dr.  Black  even  went  so  far  as  to  order  a 
special  bladder  to  be  prepared  for  the  pur- 
pose; but  by  the  time  it  was  ready  he  was 
busy  with  other  work,  and  the  experiment 
was  never  made ;  otherwise  it  is  extremely 
probable  that  the  honour  of  inventing  the 
balloon  would  have  been  won  for  this  country, 
and  not  for  France. 

A  little  later  Tiberius  Cavallo,  an  Italian 
chemist  living  in  England,  came  yet  nearer 


THE  COMING  OF  THE  GAS  BALLOON    25 

to  the  great  invention,  for  he  filled  a  number 
of  soap-bubbles  with  the  newly  discovered 
gas,  and  saw  them  float  high  into  the  air. 
He  did  not,  however,  think  at  the  time  that 
his  experiments  would  lead  to  any  practical 
result,  and  so  the  matter  dropped  entirely, 
until  the  world  was  suddenly  electrified  by 
the  tidings  of  the  wonderful  hot-air  balloon 
invented  by  the  brothers  Montgolfier  at 
Annonay. 

The  news  of  this  discovery  recalled  to  the 
minds  of  many  the  almost  forgotten  experi- 
ments of  the  past,  and  it  was  forthwith  sug- 
gested that  balloons  might  be  inflated  with 
hydrogen  gas  more  successfully  than  with 
hot  air.  It  was  resolved  immediately  to  put 
this  theory  to  the  test.  A  large  subscription 
to  defray  expenses  was  raised  in  Paris  with- 
out difficulty,  for  men's  minds  were  keen 
on  the  new-found  art  of  sailing  the  sky ; 
and  M.  Charles,  Professor  of  Experimental 
Philosophy,  and  two  brothers,  the  Messrs. 
Roberts,  well-known  mechanicians,  were 
appointed  to  construct  a  suitable  balloon 
and  inflate  it  by  the  new  method. 

But  they  were  immediately  confronted  with 
a  difficulty.  Hydrogen  being  the  lightest 
and  most  subtle  of  gases,  they  were  at  a  loss 
to  know  of  what  material  to  make  their 
balloon,  to  prevent  the  gas  escaping.  After 
several  failures  they  eventually  constructed 
a  bag  of  a  special  kind  of  silk,  and  coated 


26 


BALLOONS    AND   FLYING   MACHINES 


it  all  over  with  a  varnish  made  of  indiarubber 
dissolved  in  turpentine.  As  they  found  great 
difficulty  in  manufacturing  large  quantities  of 
hydrogen,  they  were  forced  to  make  their  bag 
a  comparatively  small  one,  about  thirteen  feet 
in  diameter.     On  the  25th  of  August   1783 


Attack  on  the  Fikst  Chaklier  Balloon. 

the  bag  was  successfully  filled,  and  the  ascent 
was  made  in  Paris  in  the  presence  of  an 
enormous  crowd.  The  little  balloon  rose 
upwards  with  immense  rapidity,  until  it  was 
lost  to  sight  in  the  clouds.  Ascending  yet 
higher,  it  presently  burst,  and  came  to  the 
earth  in  a  village,  fifteen  miles  away,  after 
a  voyage  of  three-quarters  of  an  hour. 


THE  COMING  OF  THE  GAS  BALLOON    27 

In  the  field  where  the  balloon  fell  a  party 
of  peasants  were  at  work ;  at  its  approach 
they  fled  in  abject  terror.  From  a  safe  dis- 
tance they  watched  the  strange  new  monster 
settle  to  earth  and  lie  prone,  and  then  they 
cautiously  drew  nearer  to  inspect  it.  The 
silk  still  heaved  with  the  escaping  gas,  and 
the  countrymen  were  fully  convinced  that 
an  actual  living  creature  of  mysterious  nature 
lay  before  them.  One  man  seized  his  gun 
and  fired  full  at  it,  and  then  supposing  it 
to  be  mortally  wounded,  they  all  rushed  in 
with  flails  and  pitchforks  to  complete  its 
destruction,  finally  tying  it  to  the  tail  of  a 
horse,  who  galloped  with  it  all  over  the 
country,  tearing  it  to  shreds.  It  was  small 
wonder  that  after  such  an  occurrence  the 
French  Government  issued  a  proclamation  to 
the  people,  telling  them  that  these  aeronau- 
tical experiments  were  to  be  repeated,  and 
warning  them  not  to  be  alarmed  if  they  saw 
a  balloon  in  the  air,  since  it  was  a  perfectly 
harmless  machine  filled  with  gas,  and  incapable 
of  injuring  any  one. 

This  event  took  place  about  three  months 
after  the  first  public  ascent  of  the  hot-air 
balloon.  The  new  craft  was  immediately 
called  a  "  Charlier,"  after  its  inventor,  and 
to  distinguish  it  from  the  "  Montgolfier." 
There  followed  various  exhibitions  of  the 
rival  airships,  and  after  the  voyage  of  Pilatre 
de     Rozier    and    the    Marquis    D'Arlandes, 


28  BALLOONS    AND    FLYING   MACHINES 

Messrs.  Charles  and  Roberts  resolved  also 
to  hazard  an  ascent  in  a  balloon  inflated  with 
hydrogen. 

A  new  machine  was  therefore  constructed, 
which  differed  in  many  important  details  from 
all  others  which  had  previously  been  made. 
It  was  twenty-seven  feet  in  diameter,  of 
varnished  silk,  and  over  it  was  spread  a  net 
of  cordage.  Instead  of  a  gallery  to  carry 
the  passengers,  as  in  the  "Montgolfier,"  a  car 
shaped  like  a  boat  was  suspended  from  the 
net  with  ropes  and  hung  a  few  feet  below 
the  balloon.  A  valve  to  let  out  the  gas  was 
also  provided,  and  the  voyagers  carried  in 
their  car  ballast  and  a  barometer  to  indicate 
their  height.  It  will  thus  be  seen  that  this 
new  balloon  was  in  all  practical  details  the 
same  as  the  balloon  of  the  present  day. 

The  ascent  took  place  on  the  17th  of  De- 
cember in  Paris.  Stephen  Montgolfier  was 
present,  and  launched  a  small  hot-air  balloon, 
which  amused  the  onlookers  and  indicated 
the  direction  of  the  wind.  Then  MM. 
Charles  and  Roberts  stepped  into  the  car, 
and  the  balloon  being  liberated,  they  were 
immediately  carried  up  to  a  height  of  6000 
feet,  where  a  glorious  panorama  of  Paris  and 
the  adjacent  country  was  spread  out  before 
their  delighted  vision.  After  staying  aloft 
about  a  couple  of  hours  they  descended  to 
earth  again,  and  Roberts  got  out  of  the  car. 
Charles  decided  to  continue  the  voyage  awhile 


THE    COMING    OF    THE    GAS   BALLOON         29 

by  himself,  and,  lightened  of  his  companion's 
weight,  the  balloon  this  time  rose  to  10,500 
feet.  The  sun  had  by  this  time  set  upon  the 
earth,  but  at  this  height  Charles  saw  it  rise 
once  more  and  set  a  second  time.  The  ther- 
mometer fell  far  below  freezing-point,  and 
he  was  benumbed  with  cold  and  felt  violent 
pains  in  his  ears.  When  at  his  greatest  ele- 
vation he  was  obliged  to  pull  the  valve  to 
prevent  the  balloon  from  bursting,  and  even- 
tually descended  without  mischance  about 
seven  miles  from  where  Roberts  had  left 
him. 

It  would  be  well  now  to  describe  a  little 
more  fully  the  way  in  which  the  "Mont- 
golfier "  and  "  Charlier "  balloons  were  in- 
flated. Each  of  the  rival  methods  had  its 
advantages  and  also  its  disadvantages.  In 
the  case  of  the  hot-air  balloon  a  shallow  pit 
was  dug,  in  which  a  quick-burning  fire  of 
chopped  wool  and  straw  was  lighted,  and 
the  bag  simply  suspended  over  it.  The 
inflation  was  thus  rapid,  and  its  cost  com- 
paratively small ;  the  great  drawback  being 
that  as  the  bag  was  of  very  light  material, 
it  ran  considerable  risk  of  being  ignited  by 
the  fire ;  and  all  the  while  it  was  filling  it 
was  the  uncomfortable  duty  of  an  unfortunate 
attendant  to  stand  actually  inside,  roasted 
with  the  heat  and  choked  with  the  smoke, 
armed  with  a  paddle  with  which  to  beat  out 
the  flames  whenever  the  bag  caught  alight. 


30 


BALLOONS    AND   FLYING   MACHINES 


This  danger  of  fire  was  done  away  with 
in  the  method  of  filling  with  hydrogen  gas. 
The  balloon,  suspended  from  aloft  as  before, 
was  connected  by  hose-pipes  with  a  number 
of  casks  containing  iron  or  zinc  filings  upon 
which  dilute  sulphuric  acid  was  poured.     The 


Filling  a  Hot  Air  Balloon. 

effect  of  mixing  these  substances  together  is 
to  set  up  a  brisk  chemical  action,  in  the  course 
of  which  hydrogen  gas  is  given  off.  In  this 
case  the  hydrogen  thus  liberated  came  through 
the  pipes  and  filled  the  balloon.  The  great  dis- 
advantages of  this  method  of  filling — which, 
it  may  here  be  mentioned,  is  occasionally 
employed  at  the  present  day — are  the  long 
time  it  occupies,  the  great  labour  entailed, 
and  the  enormous  expense. 


o 
a 

o 
M 
O 

P 

W 


32  BALLOONS   AND   FLYING   MACHINES 

It  is  said  that  when  Roberts  and  Charles 
returned  from  their  adventurous  voyage  they 
were  immediately  arrested  and  thrown  into 
prison  by  order  of  the  King,  who  considered 
it  his  duty  to  put  a  stop  to  his  subjects  risk- 
ing their  lives  in  such  dangerous  enterprises. 
Public  opinion  was  too  strong  for  him,  how- 
ever, and  the  two  heroes  were  quickly  released, 
and  Charles  was  rewarded  by  a  pension  of 
£200  a  year  for  life.  This  newly  discovered 
art  of  sailing  the  heavens  had  indeed  fired 
popular  imagination  to  an  extraordinary  de- 
gree. Probably  no  invention  has  ever  aroused 
greater  enthusiasm.  Not  only  all  France 
but  all  the  civilised  world  went  wild  with 
excitement  for  the  time.  Most  extravagant 
statements  were  made  and  written.  A  new 
kingdom,  it  was  declared,  had  been  given  to 
mankind  to  conquer ;  voyages  might  be  made 
to  the  moon  and  stars,  and  now  it  would  even 
be  possible  to  take  Heaven  itself  by  storm  ! 

Ascent  after  ascent  took  place  with  the 
"Montgolfier"  and  the  "  Charlier,"  both  in 
France  and  in  other  countries ;  nor  was  it 
long  before  the  balloon  made  its  appearance 
in  England.  In  August  of  the  next  summer 
(1784)  a  Mr  Tytler  of  Edinburgh  made  some 
short  voyages  in  a  hot-air  balloon  of  his  own 
manufacture,  and  in  the  following  month  a 
much  more  adventurous  attempt  was  suc- 
cessfully carried  out  in  London  by  a  young 
Italian  of  the  name  of  Vincent  Lunardi. 


THE   COMING   OF   THE    GAS    BALLOON 


33 


Lunardi  was  at  this  time  secretary  to  the 
Neapolitan  Ambassador.  He  was  keenly 
interested  in  the  subject  of  ballooning,  and 
presently  became  fired  with  a  desire  to  repeat 
in  England  those  aerial  experiments  which 
were  creating  such  a  sensation  on  the  Con- 
tinent. He  was 
only  a  poor  man, 
and  great  diffi- 
culties stood  in 
the  way  of  ac- 
complishing his 
object.  He  had 
to  excite  public 
interest  in  his 
venture,  to  col- 
lect subscriptions 
to  defray  the  cost 
of  his  balloon, 
which  was  to  be 
a  "  Charlier,"  and 
to  find  a  suitable 
site  in  London 
for   the   inflation 

and  ascent.  He  met  with  disappointments 
and  disasters  enough  to  discourage  a  less 
enthusiastic  man,  but  at  length,  after  many 
troubles,  on  the  15th  of  September  his  balloon 
was  ready  and  in  process  of  filling  in  the 
grounds  of  the  Honourable  Artillery  Com- 
pany, in  the  city,  where  150,000  people  had 
assembled  to  witness  the  new  wonder. 


Vincent  Lunaedi. 


34  BALLOONS   AND   FLYING   MACHINES 

Still  Lunardi's  trials  were  not  at  an  end. 
The  balloon  was  advertised  to  ascend  at  a 
certain  hour ;  but  the  supply  of  gas  was  in- 
sufficient, so  that  when  the  time  came  it  was 
only  partially  filled,  and  a  long  delay  ensued. 
The  vast  crowd — more  than  half  inclined  to 
believe  the  whole  thing  an  imposture — began 
to  grow  very  impatient  and  unruly,  and  it  was 
only  the  presence  of  the  Prince  of  Wales, 
afterwards  George  the  Fourth,  which  kept 
them  in  restraint  for  another  hour  while  the 
filling  continued. 

Even  then  the  balloon  was  not  full ;  but 
Lunardi  felt  he  could  wait  no  longer.  He 
left  behind  him  the  companion  who  was  to 
have  accompanied  him,  substituted  a  smaller 
and  lighter  car,  jumped  inside  and  severed  the 
ropes.  Instantly  the  balloon  rose  high  over 
the  delighted  city,  as  the  crowd,  led  by  the 
Prince  himself,  rent  the  air  with  their  cheers. 
Wild  was  the  excitement  in  every  quarter. 
At  Westminster  King  George  the  Third  was 
in  conference  with  Mr.  Pitt  and  his  other  chief 
Ministers  of  State,  but  when  it  was  known 
that  Lunardi  was  in  the  sky  the  King  ex- 
claimed, "  Gentlemen,  we  may  resume  our 
deliberations  at  pleasure,  but  we  may  never 
see  poor  Lunardi  again  ! "  and  with  one  accord 
they  adjourned  to  watch  his  progress  through 
telescopes.  Tradesmen  rushed  out  of  their 
shops,  business  men  from  their  offices,  even 
judge  and  jury  from  their  courts. 


Lunabdi's  Balloon, 


36         BALLOONS   AND   FLYING   MACHINES 

Lunardi  continued  his  voyage  over  the  town 
into  the  country  beyond.  His  balloon  appar- 
ently attained  a  considerable  height,  for  he 
found  that  the  condensed  moisture  round  the 
neck  had  frozen,  and  the  gas,  which  to  begin 
with  had  only  two-thirds  filled  the  balloon, 
presently  expanded  so  much  that  he  was 
obliged  to  untie  the  mouth  to  relieve  the 
strain.  He  had  taken  up  with  him  as  com- 
panions a  dog  and  a  cat.  The  cat  was  very 
ill  at  ease  in  the  cold  of  the  upper  regions, 
and  he  resolved  to  put  her  out ;  so,  coming 
down  to  the  ground,  he  handed  her  to  a  country 
woman  standing  in  a  field.  Throwing  out 
ballast,  he  then  rose  again  and  continued  his 
voyage  for  some  distance,  eventually  descend- 
ing in  a  meadow  near  Ware.  Some  labourers 
were  at  work  on  the  spot,  but  they  at  first 
refused  to  come  near  him,  and  a  young  woman 
was  the  first  whom  he  could  induce  to  help 
him  out  of  his  car.  A  stone  with  a  long 
inscription,  set  up  in  a  meadow  in  the  parish 
of  Standon,  near  Ware,  marks  to  this  day  the 
place  where  the  first  of  all  English  balloons 
touched  ground. 

The  following  year  witnessed  a  yet  bolder 
enterprise.  Blanchard,  a  French  aeronaut, 
and  Dr.  Jeffries,  an  American,  determined 
on  an  attempt  to  cross  the  Channel.  On  a 
winter's  day,  early  in  1785,  they  had  their 
balloon  inflated  with  hydrogen  at  Dover  and 
boldly  cast  off  to  sea.    The  cold  air  appeared  to 


THE    COMING   OF    THE    GAS    BALLOON         37 

chill  the  gas  more  than  they  had  foreseen,  and 
long  before  they  were  across  the  Channel  their 
balloon  began  settling  down  upon  the  water. 
They  threw  out  all  their  ballast,  then  a  number 
of  books  they  were  carrying,  then  their  anchor, 
extra  ropes,  and  other  gear.  Still  it  seemed 
very  doubtful  whether  they  would  reach  the 
French  coast,  and  as  a  last  resort  they  began 
even  to  throw  away  their  clothes  to  lighten 
the  balloon.  Fortunately  at  this  moment  the 
balloon  shot  up  into  the  air  again,  and  event- 
ually brought  them  down  in  safety  near  the 
forest  of  Guiennes. 

So  far,  although  several  hundred  ascents 
had  been  made,  and  in  spite  of  the  many  and 
great  dangers  of  the  new-found  art  and  the 
inexperience  of  the  early  voyagers,  no  fatal 
accident  had  marred  the  delight  of  sailing  the 
skies.  Disasters,  however,  were  soon  to  come. 
It  is  sad  to  relate  that  the  earliest  to  fall  a 
victim  was  the  brave  Pilatre  de  Rozier  him- 
self, the  first  of  all  men  to  go  aloft  in  a  balloon. 
Fired  with  a  desire  to  emulate  Blanchard  and 
Jeffries,  he  decided  that  he  himself  would 
cross  the  Channel,  this  time  from  France  to 
England ;  and  to  avoid,  as  he  imagined,  the 
cooling  of  the  gas,  which  had  so  nearly  proved 
disastrous  on  the  previous  occasion,  he  hit  on 
the  extraordinary  idea  of  combining  the  prin- 
ciples of  both  the  "  Montgolfier  "  and  "  Char- 
lier"  balloons,  and  suspending  a  fire  balloon 
beneath  another  filled  with  hydrogen  gas.     It 


38  BALLOONS    AND   FLYING   MACHINES 

seems  a  remarkable  thing  to  us  now  that  no 
one  in  those  days  saw  the  awful  danger  of 
such  a  combination.  The  inevitable  happened. 
When  the  balloon  was  high  in  the  air  the 
furnace  of  the  hot-air  machine  set  fire  to 
the  highly  inflammable  hydrogen,  a  fearful 
explosion  followed,  and  De  Rozier  and  his 
companion  were  dashed  to  pieces. 


CHAPTER    III 

FAMOUS  BALLOON  VOYAGES  OF  THE  PAST 

Unfortunately  the  death  of  Pilatre  de 
Rozier  was  but  the  first  of  a  series  of  fatal 
accidents  which  marred  the  early  years  of 
the  history  of  ballooning.  Shortly  afterwards 
another  French  aeronaut,  going  up  in  too 
shallow  a  car,  fell  overboard  when  at  a  great 
height  and  was  killed.  A  little  later  Count 
Zambeccari,  an  Italian,  ascended  in  a  hot-air 
balloon,  which,  on  coming  near  the  earth, 
became  entangled  in  a  tree.  The  furnace  it 
carried  set  fire  to  the  silk.  To  escape  from 
the  flames,  the  Count  leapt  to  the  ground 
and  was  killed  on  the  spot.  A  few  years 
after,  Madame  Blanchard,  wife  of  the  man 
who  first  crossed  the  English  Channel,  made 
a  night  ascent  from  Paris  with  a  number  of 
fireworks  hung  from  the  car.     These,  in  some 


FAMOUS  BALLOON  VOYAGES  OF  THE  PAST   39 

way,  ignited   the  balloon,  which  fell  to  the 
ground,  killing  the  unfortunate  lady  in  its  fall. 

On  the  other  hand,  many  miraculous  escapes 
are  on  record.  One  of  the  earliest  balloonists 
spent  the  night  alone  aloft  in  the  midst  of  a 
terrific  thunder-storm,  with  the  lightning  flash- 
ing all  around  him,  and  yet  descended  in  safety 
when  morning  broke.  M.  Garnerin,  a  famous 
French  aeronaut  of  this  date,  also  was  lost  in 
a  storm.  His  balloon  became  unmanageable, 
and  borne  to  earth  was  dashed  against  a 
mountain  side,  the  occupant  losing  conscious- 
ness, until  the  balloon,  which  had  ascended 
again,  brought  him  safely  down  once  more 
many  miles  away. 

A  marvellous  escape  took  place  in  1808, 
when  two  Italians  ascended  in  a  gas  balloon 
from  Padua  and  attained  a  great  height, 
estimated  as  approaching  30,000  feet.  Here 
the  balloon  burst,  and  came  precipitately  to 
the  ground ;  and  yet,  despite  the  terrific  fall, 
the  aeronauts  escaped  with  their  lives.  The 
explanation  of  this  seeming  impossibility  was, 
no  doubt,  the  tendency  which  a  balloon, 
emptied  of  its  gas,  possesses  to  form  a  natural 
parachute.  During  a  rapid  fall  the  lower 
part  of  the  silk  will,  if  loose,  collapse  into 
the  upper  portion  to  form  a  kind  of  open 
umbrella,  and  thus  very  effectually  break  the 
descent.  Many  balloonists  have  owed  their 
safety  in  similar  accidents  to  this  fortunate 
fact. 


40  BALLOONS   AND   FLYING   MACHINES 

The  bursting  of  balloons  when  at  high 
altitudes  has  already  been  referred  to  as 
happening  on  several  previous  occasions.  It 
is  a  danger  which  is  always  present  when  a 
balloon  is  aloft,  unless  due  precautions  are 
taken,  and  the  neglect  of  these  precautions 
has  probably  led  to  more  ballooning  accidents 
than  any  other  cause.  The  explanation  is 
simply  the  varying  pressure  exerted  upon  the 
bag  of  gas  by  the  weight  of  the  atmosphere. 
When  an  inflated  balloon  is  resting  upon  the 
ground,  the  vast  ocean  of  air  above  it  is 
pressing  upon  it  with  a  weight  of  approxi- 
mately fifteen  pounds  to  the  square  inch,  and 
it  is  this  pressure  which  prevents  the  enclosed 
gas  from  expanding  beyond  a  certain  limit. 
The  balloon  then  rises  high  into  the  air,  where 
the  weight  of  atmosphere  pressing  upon  it  is 
much  diminished.  The  higher  it  rises  the 
less  the  pressure  becomes,  and  the  gas  it 
holds  soon  expands  so  much  that,  unless  a 
vent  is  provided  for  it,  the  balloon  will  burst. 
At  the  present  day  the  neck  of  a  balloon  is 
always  left  wide  open  when  the  balloon  is  in 
the  air,  to  allow  of  the  escape  of  the  gas 
during  the  ascent. 

A  perilous  adventure  befell  Mr.  Sadler,  an 
English  aeronaut,  in  1812.  whilst  attempting 
to  cross  the  Irish  Channel.  He  started  from 
Dublin  with  a  wind  which  he  hoped  would 
carry  him  to  Liverpool,  but  had  gone  only 
a  short  distance  when  he  discovered  a  rent, 


FAMOUS    BALLOON    VOYAGES    OF   THE    PAST        41 

which  seemed  to  be  increasing,  in  the  silk 
of  his  balloon.  Climbing  the  rigging  with 
difficulty,  he  contrived  to  tie  up  the  hole  with 
his  neckcloth.  He  was  by  this  time  over  the 
sea,  and  having  passed  near  the  Isle  of  Man, 
found  himself,  as  evening  was  approaching, 
close  to  the  coast  of  North  Wales.  Here  he 
endeavoured  to  seek  a  landing,  but  just  at 
the  critical  moment  the  wind  shifted,  as  it 
frequently  does  in  this  treacherous  Channel, 
and  he  was  quickly  blown  out  to  sea  again. 
There  he  remained  for  another  hour  vainly 
endeavouring  to  make  the  land,  and  then, 
despairing  of  the  attempt  and  seeing  five 
ships  beneath  him,  he  came  boldly  down  on 
the  water,  trusting  they  would  come  to  his 
assistance. 

But  he  came  down  too  far  away  from  them, 
and  one  and  all  continued  their  course  and 
took  no  notice.  He  was  obliged,  therefore,  to 
throw  out  ballast  and  to  rise  into  the  air 
once  more.  The  sun  was  now  set  upon  the 
level  of  the  water,  but  as  the  brave  aeronaut 
rose  he  beheld  it  once  more  above  the  horizon, 
and  was  cheered  by  its  beams.  Presently  he 
saw  beneath  him  three  more  vessels,  which 
signalled  their  willingness  to  help  him,  and 
he  immediately  came  down  on  the  sea  again 
as  close  to  them  as  he  could.  But  the  wind, 
now  rising  fast,  caught  the  half  empty  silk 
of  the  balloon  as  it  touched  the  waves,  and 
bore  it  along  over  the  surface  of  the  water- 


42  BALLOONS   AND    FLYING    MACHINES 

at  a  terrific  pace ;  and  although  the  vessels 
came  after  in  full  pursuit,  they  were  unable 
to  overtake  it. 

Mr.  Sadler  then  dropped  his  grappling-iron 
to  act  as  a  drag,  and  this  not  proving  sufficient, 
took  off  his  clothes  and  tied  them  to  the  iron 
as  a  further  expedient.  Still  the  vessels  failed 
to  overhaul  him  as  he  sped  over  the  waves, 
and  he  was  at  length  forced  to  let  out  a 
quantity  of  the  gas  still  remaining,  and  so 
cripple  the  balloon.  But  this  was  a  dangerous 
move,  for  the  car  now  instantly  sank  ;  and  the 
unfortunate  man  had  to  clutch  the  hoop  and 
then  the  netting,  to  keep  himself  above  water. 
Chilled  and  exhausted,  and  frequently  plunged 
beneath  the  waves,  he  was  soon  at  the  point 
of  death ;  for  the  nearest  ship,  though  now 
close  at  hand,  fearful  of  becoming  entangled  in 
the  netting,  still  held  off.  Fainting  as  he  was, 
Mr.  Sadler  yet  managed  to  summon  strength 
to  call  to  the  sailors  to  run  their  bowsprit 
through  the  balloon  to  stop  its  course,  and 
this  being  done,  he  was  hauled  on  board  more 
dead  than  alive. 

Five  years  passed,  and  no  more  attempts 
were  made  to  cross  the  treacherous  Irish  Sea, 
until  Mr.  Sadler's  own  son,  Mr.  Windham 
Sadler,  determined  himself  to  make  the  at- 
tempt which  had  so  nearly  cost  his  father  his 
life.  Choosing  the  same  starting-ground  for 
his  venture,  he  left  Dublin  on  the  longest  day 
of  1817,  and,  fortune  favouring  him,  reached 


FAMOUS   BALLOON    VOYAGES    OF    THE   PAST      43 

the  Welsh  coast  not  far  from  Holyhead,  after 
a  voyage  of  70  miles,  lasting  five  hours.  This 
was  the  last  attempt  to  cross  the  Irish  Channel, 
until  November  1902,  when  the  Rev.  J.  M. 
Bacon  and  Mr.  Percival  Spencer,  starting 
from  Douglas,  in  the  Isle  of  Man,  landed  in 
a  rocky  glen  15  miles  beyond  Dumfries, 
after  a  journey  of  80  miles,  accomplished  in 
three  hours.  Brave  Mr.  Windham  Sadler 
unhappily  lost  his  life  in  a  terrible  balloon 
accident  in  1824. 

But  a  more  celebrated  balloonist,  perhaps 
the  most  famous  of  all,  had  by  this  time  come 
to  the  fore — Charles  Green,  fitly  called  "  The 
Father  of  English  Aeronautics."  It  was  he 
who  first  introduced  a  new  method  of  balloon- 
filling,  which  quickly  revolutionised  the  whole 
art  and  practice.  This  was  nothing  more  or 
less  than  the  employment  of  ordinary  house- 
hold or  coal  gas  for  inflation,  in  place  of  the 
costly  and  dangerous  hydrogen. 

While  balloons  were  inflated  only  with  pure 
hydrogen — for  the  uncertain  and  dangerous 
method  of  filling  with  hot  air  was  soon  almost 
entirely  abandoned — no  great  strides  could  be 
made  in  the  art  of  sailing  the  skies.  The 
filling  of  a  large  balloon  eighty  years  ago  cost 
no  less  than  £250,  and  few  people  could  be 
found  willing  to  provide  so  much  money  for 
such  a  purpose.  Coal  gas,  however,  was  by 
then  to  be  found  in  every  town  of  any  conse- 
quence ;  and  it  was  Green's  suggestion  that 


44  BALLOONS    AND    FLYING   MACHINES 

though  this  gas  might  be  greatly  inferior  to 
pure  hydrogen  in  buoyancy  or  "lifting  power," 
it  yet  contained  a  sufficient  quantity  of  hydro- 
gen in  it  for  all  ordinary  aeronautical  purposes. 

The  coronation  of  King  George  the  Fourth 
was  the  occasion  chosen  by  Green  to  put  his 
new  scheme  to  the  test  and  fill  a  balloon  with 
coal  gas.  The  experiment  was  entirely  suc- 
cessful, and  henceforward  balloon  ascents  be- 
came much  commoner  throughout  the  world, 
for  Green's  discovery  reduced  the  cost  of  filling 
tenfold,  and  the  trouble  and  anxiety  a  hundred- 
fold. Green  himself  became  one  of  the  most 
famous  men  of  his  day,  and  lived  to  make  a 
thousand  ascents,  some  of  them  of  the  most 
daring  and  exciting  description. 

The  most  celebrated  event  in  all  his  career, 
however,  was  the  voyage  of  the  Great  Nassau 
Balloon,  in  November  1836.  This  voyage 
created  a  tremendous  sensation  at  the  time, 
and  has  always  been  considered  one  of  the 
most  adventurous  enterprises  in  the  whole  his- 
tory of  aeronautics.  How  it  came  about  was 
as  follows : — 

The  managers  of  the  Vauxhall  Gardens, 
London,  had  made,  with  Mr.  Green's  assist- 
ance, a  very  large  and  fine  balloon  of  crimson 
silk,  which  stood  eighty  feet  high  and  held 
90,000  cubic  feet  of  gas,  and  which  would 
carry,  if  needed,  more  than  twenty  persons. 
After  it  was  made  the  proprietors  proposed 
exhibiting  it  in  Paris,  and   there   was  some 


The  Great  Nassau  Balloon. 


46  BALLOONS    AND   FLYING   MACHINES 

question  of  how  this  valuable  and  fragile 
property  had  best  be  conveyed  so  far.  Mr. 
Hollond,  a  young  gentleman  of  considerable 
wealth,  and  a  great  lover  of  adventure,  at 
once  came  forward,  and  proposed  to  take  the 
balloon  to  the  Continent  by  sky.  His  offer  was 
accepted,  and  to  make  the  ascent  more  note- 
worthy, it  was  decided  to  start  from  London 
and  cross  the  sea  by  night,  making  as  long  a 
voyage  as  possible,  although  it  was  already 
winter  time,  and  such  a  venture  had  never 
before  been  made. 

Preparations  were  at  once  commenced.  The 
passengers  were  limited  to  three — Mr.  Green, 
who  was  to  manage  the  balloon,  Mr.  Hollond, 
and  his  friend  Mr.  Monck  Mason.  A  ton  of 
ballast  was  to  be  carried,  provisions  for  a  whole 
fortnight  were  laid  in,  and,  since  none  could 
tell  to  within  a  thousand  miles  or  more  where 
they  might  be  drifted,  passports  to  every  king- 
dom in  Europe  were  obtained. 

They  left  London  late  one  November  day, 
and,  rising  under  a  north-west  wind,  skirted 
the  north  of  Kent.  Passing  presently  over 
Canterbury,  they  wrote  a  courteous  message 
to  the  mayor,  and  dropped  it  in  a  parachute. 
Some  time  later,  when  the  short  autumn  twi- 
light was  beginning  to  wane,  they  saw  beneath 
them  the  gleam  of  white  waves,  and  knew 
they  had  reached  the  boundary  of  the  hitherto 
much-dreaded  sea.  Immediately  afterwards 
they  entered  a  heavy  sea  fog,  which  hid  all 


48  BALLOONS   AND   FLYING   MACHINES 

things  from  their  sight,  and  darkness  and  dead 
silence  reigned  around. 

This  lasted  for  fifty  minutes,  when  they 
emerged  from  the  cloud  and  found  the  bright 
lights  of  Calais  beneath  them.  It  was  then 
quite  dark,  and  they  sped  on  through  the 
night  over  unknown  towns  and  villages  whose 
lights  gleamed  fainter  and  fewer  as  the  time 
went  on.  Then  once  again  they  entered  the 
fog-bank,  and  for  long  hours  no  sign  or  sound 
of  earth  reached  them  more. 

As  the  night  wore  on  they  suddenly  had 
a  startling  and  alarming  experience.  Their 
balloon,  which  had  been  flying  near  the  earth, 
was  presently  lightened  by  the  discharge  of 
ballast,  and  rose  to  a  height  of  12,000  feet  into 
the  air.  Immediately  afterwards,  when  all 
around  was  wrapped  in  the  deepest  silence 
and  the  blackest  darkness,  there  came  the 
sound  of  a  sharp  explosion  from  over  their 
heads,  followed  by  a  rustling  of  the  silk,  and 
immediately  the  car  received  a  violent  jerk. 
The  same  thing  was  repeated  again  and  yet 
again,  and  it  is  small  wonder  that  the  awful 
conviction  then  seized  the  party  that  there,  in 
the  darkness,  in  the  dead  of  night,  at  that 
fearful  height,  their  balloon  had  burst,  and 
they  were  falling  headlong  to  the  ground. 
Great  indeed  must  have  been  their  relief 
when  they  found  this  was  not  the  case,  and 
discovered  the  real  reason  of  their  alarm. 

It  is  the  tendency  of  a  balloon  when  flying 


FAMOUS  BALLOON  VOYAGES  OF  THE  PAST   49 

near  the  ground  to  assume  an  elongated  or 
pear  shape ;  and  while  their  balloon  was  in 
this  position  the  netting,  which  was  wet  with 
dew,  had  frozen  hard  and  tight  around  it. 
Immediately  they  rose  to  great  heights  the 
gas  had  expanded,  and  the  balloon  had  be- 
come globular  in  shape,  with  a  result  that  the 
stiffened  ropes  sprang  to  their  new  position 
with  the  crack  and  jerk  which  had  so  startled 
the  party.  When  day  broke  next  morning 
they  found  themselves  over  long  tracts  of 
desolate  forest  land,  and  fearing  they  were 
approaching  the  wild,  inhospitable  steppes  of 
Russia,  they  descended  with  all  speed,  and 
discovered  they  were  in  the  Duchy  of  Nassau, 
in  Germany,  near  Weilburg,  where  they  were 
received  with  the  wildest  enthusiasm  and 
delight.  From  start  to  finish  they  had  ac- 
complished a  voyage  of  500  miles  in  eighteen 
hours. 

After  this  event  Green  made  many  other 
voyages  in  the  great  Nassau  balloon,  and  met 
with  many  exciting  adventures.  On  one  occa- 
sion, ascending  in  a  violent  gale  of  wind,  he 
and  a  passenger  covered  twenty  miles  in  a 
quarter  of  an  hour,  and,  on  descending  near 
Rainham,  in  Essex,  were  blown  along  across 
the  fields  at  a  furious  pace,  until  the  anchor 
caught,  and  brought  them  up  with  such  a 
wrench  that  it  broke  the  ring  and  jerked  the 
car  completely  upside  down.  Green  and  his 
friend  only  escaped  from  being  thrown  out  by 

D 


50  BALLOONS    AND   FLYING   MACHINES 

holding  on  to  the  ropes,  and  they  were  after- 
wards dragged  wildly  through  fences  and 
hedges  until  the  balloon  collapsed  and  came 
to  a  stand,  though  not  before  they  had  both 
been  severely  hurt. 

On  another  voyage  the  famous  balloon  met 
with  serious  injury,  for  having  been  some  time 
above  the  clouds,  during  an  ascent,  Green 
found  himself  carried  out  to  sea,  and  was 
obliged  to  come  down  in  the  water  two  miles 
north  of  Sheerness.  As  in  the  accident  which 
befell  Mr.  Sadler  in  his  attempt  to  cross  the 
Irish  Channel,  the  wind  caught  the  silk  and 
bore  it  along  across  the  water  too  rapidly  for 
a  pursuing  vessel  to  overtake  it.  Green  then 
lowered  his  anchor,  which  by  happy  chance 
soon  became  entangled  in  a  sunken  wreck, 
and  so  brought  the  balloon  up.  A  boat  im- 
mediately put  out  to  his  assistance,  and  he 
and  a  companion  were  speedily  rescued ;  but 
the  balloon  was  so  restive  in  the  wind  that 
it  was  dangerous  to  approach  it.  Green  him- 
self then  suggested  that  a  volley  of  musketry 
should  be  fired  into  the  silk  to  expel  the  gas, 
and  this  was  accordingly  done  and  the  balloon 
secured,  though  it  afterwards  took  Green  a 
fortnight's  hard  labour  to  repair  the  damage 
done  to  the  fabric. 

But  the  saddest  event  connected  with  the 
Nassau  balloon  was  the  fatal  accident  which 
befell  Mr.  Cocking  in  1837,  the  year  after  the 
great   Nassau  voyage.      Before  relating  this, 


FAMOUS   BALLOON   VOYAGES    OF   THE   PAST       51 

however,  it  will  be  necessary  to  refer  briefly 
to  the  history  of  a  most  important  accessory 
of  the  balloon,  hitherto  unmentioned  —  the 
parachute. 

The  name  parachute  comes  from  two  French 
words,  parer,  to  parry  and  chute,  a  fall,  and  it 
signifies  a  contrivance,  made  more  or  less  in 
the  form  of  an  enormous  umbrella,  to  break 
the  fall  from  a  balloon  or  other  great  height, 
The  principle  of  the  parachute  was  understood 
even  before  the  invention  of  the  balloon.  In 
Eastern  countries,  in  particular,  where  the 
umbrella  or  parasol  has  been  in  familiar  use 
from  earliest  ages,  parachutes  were  frequently 
employed  by  acrobats  to  enable  them  to  jump 
safely  from  great  elevations.  In  France  also, 
at  the  end  of  the  eighteenth  century,  a  captive 
officer  attempted  to  escape  from  a  lofty  prison 
by  similar  means. 

The  aeronaut  Blanchard  was  the  first  to 
construct  a  parachute  for  use  from  a  balloon, 
his  idea  being  that  it  might  prove  of  service 
in  the  event  of  an  accident  while  aloft.  In 
1785  he  let  down  from  a  great  height  a  para- 
chute to  which  was  attached  a  dog  in  a  basket, 
which  reached  the  ground  gently  and  safely. 
After  this  M.  Garnerin,  the  famous  balloon- 
ist already  referred  to,  hazarded  a  parachute 
descent  in  person,  and  his  attempt  being 
eminently  satisfactory,  parachute  descents  be- 
came fairly  common. 

In  August  1814  Mr.  Cocking,  an  English 


52  BALLOONS    AND    FLYING    MACHINES 

gentleman  of  scientific  tastes,  read  a  paper  on 
parachutes,  suggesting  an  amendment  in  their 
shape  and  construction,  before  the  Society  of 
Arts,  for  which  he  was  awarded  a  medal.  His 
theory  was  never  put  into  practice,  however, 
till  twenty-three  years  later,  when,  fired  no 
doubt  by  the  interest  aroused  by  the  famous 
Nassau  voyage,  he  resolved  to  put  his  inven- 
tion to  the  test. 

He  accordingly  constructed  his  parachute, 
which  was  of  enormous  size,  of  unwieldy 
weight,  and  in  shape  rather  resembling  an 
umbrella  turned  inside  out.  Despite  the 
warning  of  friends  that  the  untried  machine 
was  unwisely  built,  he  insisted  on  making  a 
descent  with  it,  and  succeeded  in  persuading 
Mr.  Green  to  take  him  and  his  craft  aloft 
attached  to  the  Nassau  balloon. 

On  the  27th  of  July  1837  they  started  from 
the  Vauxhall  Gardens,  Mr.  Green  in  the  car 
accompanied  by  Mr.  Edward  Spencer  (grand- 
father of  the  present  well-known  firm  of 
aeronauts),  his  friend  and  frequent  companion  ; 
Mr.  Cocking  seated  in  his  machine  slung 
below.  A  height  of  5000  feet  was  attained, 
and  then  Mr.  Cocking,  after  bidding  a  hearty 
farewell  to  the  others,  pulled  the  rope  which 
liberated  his  parachute  from  the  balloon. 
Relieved  from  the  enormous  weight,  the  latter 
rushed  upwards  into  the  sky  with  terrific 
velocity,  the  gas  pouring  in  volumes  from  the 
valves  and  almost  suffocating  the  occupants  of 


Cooking's  Pakachute. 


54    BALLOONS  AND  FLYING  MACHINES 

the  car.  Their  position,  indeed,  for  the  time 
was  one  of  the  greatest  danger,  and  they  were 
thankful  to  reach  the  earth  unharmed,  which 
they  eventually  did.  But  their  fate  was 
happier  far  than  that  of  the  luckless  Cocking, 
whose  parachute,  after  swaying  fearfully  from 
side  to  side,  at  length  utterly  collapsed,  and 
falling  headlong,  was,  with  its  inventor,  dashed 
to  pieces. 

While  Charles  Green  was  making  his 
famous  ascents  in  England,  an  equally  cele- 
brated aeronaut,  John  Wise,  was  pursuing  the 
same  art  in  America.  During  a  long  and 
successful  career,  unhappily  terminated  by  an 
accident,  Wise  made  many  experiments  in  the 
construction  of  balloons,  their  shape,  size, 
varnish,  material,  and  so  forth.  His  results, 
which  he  carefully  put  together,  have  been  of 
the  greatest  value  to  balloon  manufacturers 
until  the  present  time.  In  the  course  of  his 
many  voyages  he  met  with  various  exciting 
adventures.  On  one  occasion  while  aloft  he 
saw  before  him  a  huge  black  cloud  of  particu- 
larly forbidding  aspect.  Entering  this,  he 
found  himself  in  the  heart  of  a  terrific  storm- 
His  balloon  was  caught  in  a  whirlwind,  and 
set  so  violently  spinning  and  swinging  that  he 
was  sea-sick  with  the  motion,  while,  at  the 
same  time,  he  felt  himself  half-suffocated  and 
scarce  able  to  breathe.  Within  the  cloud  the 
cold  was  intense ;  the  ropes  of  the  balloon 
became  glazed  with  ice   and  snow  till  they 


FAMOUS   BALLOON    VOYAGES    Oj   THE   PAST       55 

resembled  glass  rofts;  flair  feflsmound,  and  the 
gloom  was  so  great  that  from  the  car  the  silk 
above  became  invisible.  "  A  noise  resembling 
the  rushing  of  a  thousand  mill-dams,  inter- 
mingled with  a  dismal  moaning  sound  of  wind, 
surrounded  me  in  this  terrible  flight.'1  Wise 
adds,  "  Bright  sunshine  was  just  above  the 
clouds  ; "  but  though  he  endeavoured  to  reach 
it  by  throwing  out  ballast,  the  balloon  had  no 
sooner  begun  to  rise  upwards  than  it  was 
caught  afresh  by  the  storm  and  whirled  down 
again.  Neither  was  he  able,  by  letting  out 
gas,  to  escape  this  furious  vortex  from  be- 
neath; and  for  twenty  minutes  he  was  swept 
to  and  fro,  and  up  and  down  in  the  cloud, 
before  he  could  get  clear  of  it,  or  regain  any 
control  over  his  balloon. 

On  another  occasion  Wise  made  an  exceed- 
ingly daring  and  bold  experiment.  Convinced 
of  the  power  which,  as  has  before  been  said, 
an  empty  balloon  has  of  turning  itself  into  a 
natural  parachute,  he  determined  to  put  the 
matter  to  the  test,  and  deliberately  to  burst 
his  balloon  when  at  a  great  height.  For  this 
purpose  he  made  a  special  balloon  of  very  thin 
material,  and  fastened  up  the  neck  so  that 
there  was  no  vent  for  the  gas.  He  then 
ascended  fearlessly  to  a  height  of  13,000  feet, 
where,  through  the  expansion  of  the  hydrogen 
with  which  it  was  filled,  his  balloon  exploded. 
The  gas  escaped  instantly,  so  that  in  ten 
seconds  not  a   trace  remained.      The  empty 


56         BALLOONS   AND   FLYING   MACHINES 

balloon  at  first  descended  with  fearful  rapidity, 
with  a  strange  moaning  sound  as  the  air 
rushed  through  the  network.  Then  the  silk 
assuming  parachute  shape,  the  fall  became  less 
rapid,  and  finally  the  car,  coming  down  in 
zigzags,  turned  upside  down  when  close  to 
the  ground,  and  tossed  Wise  out  into  a  field 
unhurt. 

It  was  John  Wise's  great  desire  at  one  time 
to  sail  a  balloon  right  across  the  Atlantic  from 
America  to  Europe.  Long  study  of  the  upper 
winds  had  convinced  him  that  a  regular  current 
of  air  is  always  blowing  steadily  high  aloft 
from  west  to  east,  and  he  believed  that  if  an 
aeronaut  could  only  keep  his  balloon  in  this 
upper  current  he  might  be  carried  across  the 
ocean  quicker,  and  with  more  ease  and  safety, 
than  in  the  fastest  steamship.  Wise  went  so 
far  as  to  work  out  all  the  details  for  this  plan, 
the  size  of  the  balloon  required,  the  ballast, 
provisions,  and  number  of  passengers ;  and 
only  the  want  of  sufficient  money  prevented 
him  from  actually  making  the  attempt.  Curi- 
ously enough,  about  the  same  time,  Charles 
Green,  in  England,  was,  quite  independently, 
working  at  the  same  idea,  which  he  also  be- 
lieved, with  proper  equipment,  to  be  quite 
feasible. 


THE   BALLOON    A    SCIENTIFIC   INSTRUMENT      57 


CHAPTER  IV 

THE  BALLOON  AS  A  SCIENTIFIC 
INSTRUMENT 

So  far,  in  our  history  of  aeronautics,  we  have 
referred  to  ballooning  only  as  a  sport  or  pas- 
time for  the  amusement  of  spectators,  and  for 
the  gratifying  of  a  love  of  adventure.  It  is 
now  time  to  speak  of  the  practical  uses  of  the 
balloon,  and  how  it  has  been  employed  as  a 
most  valuable  scientific  instrument  to  teach 
us  facts  about  the  upper  atmosphere,  its 
nature  and  extent,  the  clouds,  the  winds  and 
their  ways,  the  travel  of  sounds,  and  many 
other  things  of  which  we  should  otherwise  be 
ignorant. 

Before  the  invention  of  the  balloon  men 
were  quite  unaware  of  the  nature  of  the  air 
even  a  short  distance  above  their  heads.  In 
those  days  high  mountain  climbing  had  not 
come  into  fashion,  and  when  Pilatre  de  Rozier 
made  the  first  ascent,  it  was  considered  very 
doubtful  whether  he  might  be  able  to  exist  in 
the  strange  atmosphere  aloft.  Charles  and 
Roberts  were  the  first  to  make  scientific 
observations  from  a  balloon,  for  they  took  up 
a  thermometer  and  barometer,  and  made 
certain  rough  records,  as  also  did  other  early 
aeronauts.     The  most  interesting  purely  scien- 


58  BALLOONS    AND    FLYING    MACHINES 

tific  ascents  of  early  days,  however,  were  made 
in  the  autumn  of  1804,  from  Paris,  by  Gay 
Lussac,  a  famous  French  philosopher.  He 
took  up  with  him  all  manner  of  instruments, 
among  them  a  compass  (to  see  if  the  needle 
behaved  the  same  as  on  earth),  an  apparatus  to 
test  the  electricity  of  the  air,  thermometers, 
barometers,  and  hygrometers,  carefully  ex- 
hausted flasks  in  which  to  bring  down  samples 
of  the  upper  air,  birds,  and  even  insects  and 
frogs,  to  see  how  great  heights  affected  them. 
In  his  second  voyage  his  balloon  attained  the 
enormous  altitude  of  23,000  feet,  or  more  than 
four  miles  and  a  quarter,  and  nearly  2000  feet 
higher  than  the  highest  peaks  of  the  Andes. 
At  this  tremendous  height  the  temperature 
fell  to  far  below  freezing-point,  and  the  aero- 
naut became  extremely  cold,  though  warmly 
clad ;  he  also  felt  headache,  a  difficulty  in 
breathing,  and  his  throat  became  so  parched 
that  he  could  hardly  swallow.  Nevertheless, 
undismayed  by  the  awfulness  of  his  position, 
he  continued  making  his  observations,  and 
eventually  reached  the  ground  in  safety,  and 
none  the  worse  for  his  experience. 

Gay  Lussac's  experiments  at  least  proved 
that  though  the  air  becomes  less  and  less  dense 
as  we  ascend  into  it,  it  remains  of  the  same 
nature  and  constitution.  His  second  voyage 
also  showed  that  the  limit  to  which  man 
could  ascend  aloft  into  the  sky  and  yet  live 
had   not    yet    been   reached.      Almost  sixty 


THE   BALLOON    A   SCIENTIFIC   INSTRUMENT      59 

3^ears  later  other  scientific  ascents  threw  fresh 
light  on  this  point,  and  also  continued  the 
other  investigations  that  Gay  Lussac  had 
commenced. 

Towards  the  close  of  Charles  Green's  famous 
career,  scientific  men  in  England  woke  up  to 
the  fact  that  the  use  of  a  balloon  as  an  im- 
portant means  for  obtaining  observations  on 
meteorology  and  other  matters  had  of  late 
been  very  much  neglected.  The  British  Asso- 
ciation took  the  matter  up,  and  provided 
the  money  for  four  scientific  ascents,  which 
were  made  by  Mr.  Welsh  of  Kew  Observa- 
tory, a  trained  observer.  Green  was  the 
aeronaut  chosen  to  accompany  him,  and  the 
balloon  used  was  none  other  than  the  great 
Nassau  balloon,  of  whose  many  and  wonder- 
ful adventures  we  have  already  spoken.  Green 
was  then  nearly  seventy  years  of  age,  but  his 
skill  as  an  aeronaut  was  as  great  as  ever,  and 
Welsh  was  able  to  obtain  many  valuable 
records.  During  the  last  voyage  a  height  was 
attained  almost  as  great  as  that  reached  by 
Gay  Lussac,  and  both  men  found  much  diffi- 
culty in  breathing.  While  at  this  elevation 
they  suddenly  noticed  they  were  rapidly  ap- 
proaching the  sea,  and  so  were  forced  to  make 
a  very  hasty  descent,  in  which  many  of  the 
instruments  were  broken. 

The  veteran  Green  lived  to  a  ripe  old  age, 
dying  in  1870,  aged  eighty-five.  When  a  very 
old  man  he  still  delighted  in  taking  visitors  to 


60  BALLOONS    AND    FLYING    MACHINES 

an  outhouse  where  he  kept  the  old  Nassau 
balloon,  now  worn  out  and  useless,  and,  hand- 
ling it  affectionately,  would  talk  of  its  famous 
adventures  and  his  own  thousand  ascents,  dur- 
ing which  he  had  never  once  met  with  serious 
accident  or  failure.  After  his  death  the  old 
balloon  passed  into  the  hands  of  another 
equally  famous  man,  who,  after  Green's  re- 
tirement, took  his  place  as  the  most  celebrated 
English  aeronaut  of  the  day. 

This  was  Henry  Coxwell.  He  was  the  son 
of  a  naval  officer,  and  was  brought  up  to  the 
profession  of  a  dentist.  But  when  a  boy  of 
only  nine  years  old  he  watched,  through  his 
father's  telescope,  a  balloon  ascent  by  Green, 
which  so  fired  his  imagination  that  hence- 
forward balloons  filled  all  his  thoughts.  As 
he  grew  older  the  fascination  increased  upon 
him.  He  would  go  long  distances  to  see 
ascents  or  catch  glimpses  of  balloons  in  the 
air,  and  he  was  fortunate  enough  to  be  present 
at  the  first  launching  of  the  great  Nassau 
balloon.  He  did  not  get  the  chance  of  a 
voyage  aloft,  however,  till  he  was  twenty- 
five  ;  but  after  this  nothing  could  restrain  his 
ardour,  and,  throwing  his  profession  to  the 
winds,  he  made  ascent  after  ascent  on  all  pos- 
sible occasions. 

In  one  of  his  early  voyages  he  met  with  what 
he  describes  as  one  of  the  most  perilous  de- 
scents in  the  whole  history  of  ballooning.  The 
occasion  was  an  evening  ascent  made  from  the 


THE   BALLOON    A   SCIENTIFIC   INSTRUMENT      61 

Vauxhall  Gardens  one  autumn  night  of  1848. 
The  aeronaut  was  a  Mr.  Gypson,  and  besides 
Mr.  Coxwell  there  were  two  other  passengers, 
one  of  whom  was  the  well-known  mountaineer 
and  lecturer,  Albert  Smith.  A  number  of 
fireworks  which  were  to  be  displayed  when 


Coxwell. 


GrLAlSHEK. 


aloft  were  slung  on  a  framework   forty  feet 
below  the  car. 

The  balloon  rose  high  above  London,  and 
the  party  were  amazed  and  delighted  with  the 
strange  and  lovely  view  of  the  great  city  by 
night,  all  sight  of  the  houses  being  lost  in  the 
darkness,  and  the  thousands  of  gas  lamps,  out- 
lining the  invisible  streets  and  bridges,  twink- 


62  BALLOONS    AND    FLYING   MACHINES 

ling  like  stars  in  a  blue-black  sky.  Cox  well 
was  sitting,  not  in  the  car,  but  in  the  ring  of 
the  balloon,  and  presently,  when  they  were 
about  7000  feet  above  the  town,  he  noticed  that 
the  silk,  the  mouth  of  which  appears  to  have 
been  fastened,  was  growing  dangerously  dis- 
tended with  the  expanding  gas.  By  his  advice 
the  valve  was  immediately  pulled,  but  it  was 
already  too  late ;  the  balloon  burst,  the  gas 
escaped  with  a  noise  like  the  escape  of  steam 
from  an  engine,  the  silk  collapsed,  and  the 
balloon  began  to  descend  with  appalling 
speed,  the  immense  mass  of  loose  silk  surging 
and  rustling  frightfully  overhead.  Everything 
was  immediately  thrown  out  of  the  car  to 
break  the  fall ;  but  the  wind  still  seemed  to 
be  rushing  past  at  a  fearful  rate,  and,  to  add 
to  the  horror  of  the  aeronauts,  they  now  came 
down  through  the  remains  of  the  discharged 
fireworks  floating  in  the  air.  Little  bits  of 
burning  cases  and  still  smouldering  touch- 
paper  blew  about  them,  and  were  caught  in 
the  rigging.  These  kindled  into  sparks,  and 
there  seemed  every  chance  of  the  whole  balloon 
catching  alight.  They  were  still  a  whole  mile 
from  the  ground,  and  this  distance  they  appear 
to  have  covered  in  less  than  two  minutes. 
The  house-tops  seemed  advancing  up  towards 
them  with  awful  speed  as  they  neared  earth. 
In  the  end  they  were  tossed  out  of  the  car 
along  the  ground,  and  it  appeared  a  perfect 
marvel  to  them  all  that  they  escaped  with  only 


THE    BALLOON    A   SCIENTIFIC    INSTRUMENT       63 

a  severe  shaking.  This  adventure  did  not  in 
the  least  abate  Coxwell's  ardour  for  ballooning, 
and  exactly  a  week  later  he  and  Gypson  suc- 
cessfully made  the  same  ascent  from  the  same 
place,  and  in  the  same  balloon — and  loaded 
with  twice  the  number  of  fireworks  ! 

But  Coxwell's  most  celebrated  voyage  of  all 
took  place  some  years  later,  on  the  occasion 
of  a  scientific  voyage  made  in  company  with 
Mr.  James  Glaisher.  In  1862  the  British  As- 
sociation determined  to  continue  the  balloon 
observations  which  Mr.  Welsh  had  so  success- 
fully commenced,  but  this  time  on  a  larger 
scale.  The  observer  was  to  be  Mr.  Glaisher 
of  Greenwich  Observatory,  and  Mr.  Coxwell, 
who  by  this  time  had  become  a  recognised 
aeronaut,  undertook  the  management  of  the 
balloon.  The  first  ascents  were  made  in  July 
and  August.  Mr.  Glaisher  took  up  a  most 
elaborate  and  costly  outfit  of  instruments, 
which,  however,  were  badly  damaged  at  the 
outset  during  a  very  rapid  descent,  made  per- 
force to  avoid  falling  in  the  "  Wash."  On 
each  occasion  a  height  of  over  four  miles  was 
attained  ;  but  on  the  third  voyage,  which  was 
in  September,  it  was  decided  to  try  and  reach 
yet  greater  altitudes. 

The  balloon  with  its  two  passengers  left  Wol- 
verhampton at  1  p.m. — the  temperature  on  the 
ground  being  59°.  At  about  a  mile  high  a 
dense  cloud  was  entered,  and  the  thermometer 
fell  to  36°.     In  nineteen  minutes  a  height  of 


64  BALLOONS    AND    FLYING   MACHINES 

two  miles  was  reached,  and  the  air  was  at 
freezing-point.  Six  minutes  later  they  were 
three  miles  aloft,  with  the  thermometer  still 
falling ;  and  by  the  time  four  miles  high  was 
attained  the  mercury  registered  only  8°. 

In  forty-seven  minutes  from  the  start  five 
miles  had  been  passed ;  and  now  the  tempera- 
ture was  2°  below  zero.  Mr.  Coxwell,  who 
was  up  in  the  ring  of  the  balloon  and  exerting 
himself  over  the  management  of  it,  found  he 
was  beginning  to  breathe  with  great  difficulty. 
Mr.  Glaisher,  sitting  quietly  in  the  car  watch- 
ing his  instruments,  felt  no  inconvenience. 
More  ballast  was  thrown  out,  and  the  balloon 
continued  to  rise  apace ;  and  soon  Mr.  Glaisher 
found  his  eyes  growing  strangely  dim.  He 
could  not  see  to  read  his  thermometer,  or 
distinguish  the  hands  of  his  watch.  He  noticed 
the  mercury  of  the  barometer,  however,  and 
saw  that  a  height  of  29,000  feet  had  been 
reached,  and  the  balloon  was  still  rising. 
What  followed  next  had  best  be  told  in 
Mr.  Glaisher's  own  words  : — 

"  Shortly  after  I  laid  my  arm  upon  the  table, 
possessed  of  its  full  vigour,  but  on  being 
desirous  of  using  it,  I  found  it  useless.  Trying 
to  move  the  other  arm,  I  found  it  powerless 
also.  Then  I  tried  to  shake  myself  and  suc- 
ceeded, but  I  seemed  to  have  no  limbs.  In 
looking  at  the  barometer  my  head  fell  over 
my  left  shoulder.  I  struggled  and  shook  my 
body   again,  but  could  not  move   my  arms. 


THE    BALLOON    A    SCIENTIFIC    INSTRUMENT       65 

Getting  my  head  upright  for  an  instant  only, 
it  fell  on  my  right  shoulder ;  then  I  fell  back- 
wards, my  body  resting  against  the  side  of  the 
car,  and  my  head  on  the  edge.  I  dimly  saw- 
Mr.  Coxwell  and  endeavoured  to  speak,  but 
could  not.  In  an  instant  intense  darkness 
overcame  me ;  but  I  was  still  conscious,  with 
as  active  a  brain  as  at  the  present  moment 
while  writing  this.  I  thought  I  had  been 
seized  with  asphyxia,  and  believed  I  should 
experience  nothing  more,  as  death  would  come 
unless  we  speedily  descended.  Other  thoughts 
were  entering  my  mind,  when  I  suddenly  be- 
came unconscious  as  on  going  to  sleep."  Mr. 
Glaisher  adds  :  "  I  cannot  tell  anything  of  the 
sense  of  hearing,  as  no  sound  reaches  the  ear 
to  break  the  perfect  stillness  and  silence  of  the 
regions  between  six  and  seven  miles  above 
the  earth." 

Meanwhile,  as  stated,  Mr.  Coxwell  was  up 
in  the  ring,  trying  to  secure  the  valve-line, 
which  had  become  twisted.  To  do  this  he 
had  taken  off  a  pair  of  thick  gloves  he  had 
been  wearing,  and  in  the  tremendous  cold  of 
that  awful  region  the  moment  his  bare  hands 
rested  on  the  metal  of  the  ring  they  became 
frost-bitten  and  useless.  Looking  down,  he 
saw  Mr.  Glaisher  in  a  fainting  condition,  and 
called  out  to  him,  but  received  no  answer. 
Thoroughly  alarmed  by  this  time,  he  tried  to 
come  down  to  his  companion's  assistance ;  but 
now  his  hands  also  had  become  lifeless,  and 

E 


66  BALLOONS    AND    FLYING   MACHINES 

he  felt  unconsciousness  rapidly  stealing  over 
him. 

Quickly  realising  that  death  to  both  of 
them  would  speedily  follow  if  the  balloon 
continued  to  ascend,  Mr.  Coxwell  now  en- 
deavoured to  pull  the  valve-line  ;  but  he 
found  it  impossible  to  do  so  with  his  disabled 
hands.  Fortunately  he  was  a  man  of  great 
bodily  strength,  as  well  as  of  iron  nerve,  and 
by  a  great  effort  he  succeeded  in  catching 
the  valve-line  in  his  teeth.  Then,  putting  his 
whole  weight  upon  it,  he  managed  to  pull 
open  the  valve,  and  hold  it  until  the  balloon 
took  a  decided  turn  downwards.  This  saved 
them.  As  lower  regions  were  reached,  where 
the  air  was  denser,  Mr.  Glaisher  began  to 
recover,  and  by  the  time  they  came  to  the 
ground  neither  of  these  two  brave  men 
were  any  the  worse  for  their  extraordinary 
experience. 

Neither  Mr.  Glaisher  or  Mr.  Coxwell  were 
able  to  note  the  exact  elevation  when  they 
were  at  their  greatest  height  ;  but  from 
several  circumstances  they  were  convinced 
that  it  must  have  been  36,000  or  37,000  feet, 
or  fully  seven  miles  high.  Later  aeronauts 
have  been  inclined  to  doubt  if  this  surmise 
can  be  quite  correct ;  but  whether  it  is  so 
or  not  is  of  no  great  moment,  for  this  great 
balloon  ascent  will  always  stand  unrivalled 
in  the  history  of  ballooning.  Since  that  day 
nearly    as    great,    or    perhaps    even    greater, 


THE   BALLOON    A    SCIENTIFIC   INSTRUMENT      67 

heights  have  been  reached  in  balloons ;  but 
nowadays  those  who  attempt  to  ascend  to 
great  elevations  always  provide  themselves, 
before  they  start,  with  cylinders  of  com- 
pressed oxygen  gas.  Then  when  the  atmos- 
phere aloft  becomes  so  thin  and  rare  as  to 
make  breathing  difficult,  they  begin  to  fill 
their  lungs  with  the  life-giving  gas  from  the 
cylinders,  and  at  once  recover. 

After  this  perilous  voyage  Glaisher  and 
Coxwell  made  several  other  scientific  balloon 
ascents.  They  met  with  various  experiences. 
On  one  occasion,  during  a  lofty  ascent,  they 
lost  sight  of  the  earth  above  the  clouds  for 
a  while,  but,  the  mist  suddenly  breaking,  they 
found  themselves  on  the  point  of  drifting  out 
to  sea.  Not  a  moment  was  to  be  lost,  and 
both  men  hung  on  to  the  valve-line  until 
it  cut  their  hands.  The  result  was  a  tre- 
mendously rapid  descent.  The  balloon  fell 
four  and  a  quarter  miles  in  less  than  a  quarter 
of  an  hour,  covering  the  last  two  miles  in 
only  four  minutes.  They  reached  earth  close 
to  the  shore,  and  were  fortunate  to  escape 
with  only  a  few  bruises,  though  all  the  instru- 
ments were  once  more  broken  in  the  shock. 

Mr.  Glaisher  was  able  to  make  many 
interesting  notes  of  the  condition  of  the 
winds  and  clouds  at  high  levels.  He  ob- 
served how  frequently  different  currents  of 
air  are  blowing  aloft  in  different  directions 
at   the    same    time.      These   differing   winds 


68  BALLOONS    AND    FLYING   MACHINES 

affect  the  shape  of  the  clouds  among  which 
they  blow.  High  above  the  ground  he 
frequently  met  with  a  warm  wind  blowing 
constantly  from  the  south-west;  and  he  be- 
lieved that  it  is  largely  due  to  this  mild  air- 
stream  passing  always  overhead  that  England 
enjoys  such  much  less  rigorous  winters  than 
other  countries  that  lie  as  far  north  of  the 
equator.  This  mildness  of  our  climate  has 
long  been  attributed  to  the  Gulf  Stream, 
that  warm  current  of  the  sea  which  sweeps 
up  from  the  tropics  past  our  shores.  But  it 
may  well  be  that  there  is  besides  an  "  Aerial 
Gulf  Stream,"  as  Mr.  Glaisher  calls  it,  blowing 
constantly  above  our  heads,  which  also  serves 
to  warm  the  air,  and  make  our  winter  climate 
mild  and  moist. 

One  fact  these  experiments  seemed  to 
establish  was,  that  when  rain  is  falling  from 
an  overcast  sky,  there  is  always  a  higher  layer 
of  clouds  overhanging  the  lower  stratum. 
Nothing  surprised  Mr.  Glaisher  more  than 
the  extreme  rapidity  with  which  the  whole 
sky,  up  to  a  vast  height,  could  fill  up  entirely 
with  clouds  at  the  approach  of  a  storm. 
Another  point  noted  was  that,  when  a  wind 
is  blowing,  the  upper  portion  of  the  current 
always  travels  faster  than  that  next  the 
ground.  This  is  due,  of  course,  to  the 
obstacles  the  wind  meets  as  it  sweeps  over 
the  earth,  and  which  check  its  onward 
progress. 


THE   BALLOON    IN   WARFARE  69 

These,  and  very  many  other  facts  of  the 
greatest  interest  to  the  meteorologist,  were 
the  outcome  of  Mr.  Glaisher's  experiments. 
Later  voyages  of  a  similar  kind  have  added 
greatly  to  our  knowledge  of  the  condition 
of  the  air,  and  it  seems  certain  that  in  the 
future  the  balloon  will  be  much  more  used 
by  scientific  men,  and  by  its  means  they  will 
be  able  to  predict  the  weather  more  accurately 
and  further  ahead  than  at  present,  and  learn 
many  other  things  of  which  we  are  now  in 
ignorance. 


CHAPTER  V 

THE   BALLOON   IN   WARFARE 

But  there  is  another  practical  use  for  the 
balloon  to  which  we  must  now  refer,  and 
that  a  most  important  one — its  employment 
in  war-time.  It  was  not  long  after  the  in- 
vention of  this  ship  of  the  skies  that  soldiers 
began  to  realise  what  a  valuable  aid  it  might 
be  to  them  in  times  of  battle,  enabling  them 
to  see  inside  a  camp,  fort,  or  beleaguered 
city,  or  watch  the  enemy's  movements  from 
afar  off.  The  opportunity  for  first  putting 
the  matter  to  the  test  very  soon  arose. 
Within  a  very  few  years  of  the  earliest  bal- 
loon experiments  in  France  there  commenced 


70  BALLOONS    AND    FLYING   MACHINES 

in  that  very  country  the  dreadful  French 
Revolution,  and  soon  the  nation  found  itself 
at  war  with  all  the  world,  and  forced  to  hold 
its  own,  alone,  against  the  armies  of  Europe. 
This  danger  quickened  the  minds  of  all  to 
the  importance  of  making  use  of  every  pos- 
sible means  of  defence  in  their  power.  It 
was  suggested  that  the  newly  discovered 
balloon  might  be  turned  to  account,  and 
immediately  a  school  for  military  ballooning 
was  established  near  Paris.  Fifty  young 
military  students  were  trained  in  the  new 
art,  and  suitable  balloons  were  provided. 
The  value  of  their  work  was  soon  apparent. 
In  June  1794  was  fought  the  battle  of 
Fleurus,  between  the  French  and  Austrians. 
Before  the  fight  a  balloon  party  had  carefully 
observed  the  position  of  the  Austrian  forces, 
and,  through  the  information  they  gave,  the 
French  were  able  to  gain  a  speedy  and  de- 
cisive victory.  In  this  way,  and  at  this  early 
stage,  the  value  of  the  war  balloon  was  at 
once  established. 

Curiously  enough,  Napoleon  would  make 
no  use  of  balloons  in  his  campaigns,  and  even 
did  away  with  the  balloon  school  at  Paris. 
The  reason  given  for  his  prejudice  is  a  curious 
one.  At  the  time  of  his  coronation  a  large, 
unmanned  balloon,  gaily  decorated,  and  carry- 
ing thousands  of  lights,  was  sent  up  from 
Paris  during  the  evening's  illuminations.  It 
was    a   very   beautiful    object,    and    behaved 


THE   BALLOON    IN   WARFARE  71 

splendidly,  sailing  away  into  the  night,  amidst 
great  popular  rejoicing,  until  it  was  lost  to 
sight  in  the  darkness.  But  at  daybreak  next 
morning  it  was  seen  approaching  the  city  of 
Rome,  where  it  presently  arrived,  actually 
hovering  over  St.  Peter's  and  the  Vatican. 
Then,  as  if  its  mission  were  fulfilled,  it  settled 
to  earth,  and  finally  fell  in  Lake  Bracciano. 
But  as  it  fell  it  rent  itself,  and  left  a  portion 
of  the  crown  with  which  it  was  ornamented 
on  the  tomb  of  the  Roman  Emperor  Nero. 
Napoleon,  who  was  always  a  superstitious 
man,  saw  in  this  extraordinary  voyage  some 
dreadful  forecast  of  his  own  fate.  He  was 
much  disturbed,  and  forebade  the  matter 
ever  to  be  mentioned  in  his  presence ;  nor 
would  he  henceforward  have  any  more  to 
do  with  balloons. 

Military  balloons  were  used  by  the  French 
again,  however,  during  their  war  in  Africa  in 
1830.  The  Austrians  also  used  them  in  1849, 
and  it  is  said  the  Russians  had  them  at  the 
siege  of  Sebastopol  in  the  Crimean  War.  A 
Montgolfier  balloon  was  made  use  of  by  the 
French  in  1862  at  the  battle  of  Solferino ; 
and  the  Americans  also  employed  balloons 
during  the  Civil  War  a  year  later.  The 
American  war  balloons  were  comparatively 
small  ones,  inflated  with  hydrogen.  The 
hydrogen  was  manufactured  in  the  way  al- 
ready described,  by  pouring  dilute  sulphuric 
acid   upon  scrap-iron.      For  making  the  gas 


72 


BALLOONS   AND   FLYING   MACHINES 


upon  the  field  two  large  tanks  of  wood  called 
"generators"  were  used.  In  these  the  water 
and  scrap-iron  were  placed  and  the  acid  poured 
upon  them,  the  gas  produced  being  carried 
to  the   balloon   through   pipes,    passing   first 


^:^>^r>* 


American  War  Balloon. 


through  vessels  filled  with  lime-water  to  cool 
and  purify  it.  When  on  the  march  four 
waggons  were  sufficient  to  carry  the  whole 
apparatus.  The  inflation,  which  took  some 
time,  was  made  as  close  to  the  scene  of 
action  as  was  considered  safe,  and  when 
the  balloon  was   once   full   a   party   of  men 


THE    BALLOON    IN   WARFARE  73 

could  easily  tow  it  about  to  where  it  was 
needed. 

But  the  time  when  the  balloon  was  most 
largely  and  most  usefully  used  in  time  of 
war  was  during  the  Siege  of  Paris.  In  the 
month  of  September  1870,  during  the  Franco- 
Prussian  War,  Paris  was  closely  invested  by 
the  Prussian  forces,  and  for  eighteen  long 
weeks  lay  besieged  and  cut  off  from  all  the 
rest  of  the  world.  No  communication  with 
the  city  was  possible  either  by  road,  river, 
rail,  or  telegraph,  nor  could  the  inhabitants 
convey  tidings  of  their  plight  save  by  one 
means  alone.  Only  the  passage  of  the  air 
was  open  to  them. 

Quite  at  the  beginning  of  the  siege  it  oc- 
curred to  the  Parisians  that  they  might  use 
balloons  to  escape  from  the  beleaguered  town, 
and  pass  over  the  heads  of  the  enemy  to  safety 
beyond;  and  inquiry  was  at  once  made  to 
discover  what  aeronautical  resources  were  at 
their  command. 

It  was  soon  found  that  with  only  one  or 
two  exceptions  the  balloons  actually  in  exist- 
ence within  the  walls  were  unserviceable  or 
unsuitable  for  the  work  on  hand,  being  mostly 
old  ones  which  had  been  laid  aside  as  worth- 
less. One  lucky  discovery  was,  however,  made. 
Two  professional  aeronauts,  of  well-proved 
experience  and  skill,  were  in  Paris  at  the  time. 
These  were  MM.  Godard  and  Yon,  both  of 
whom  had  been  in  London  only  a  short  time 


74  BALLOONS    AND    FLYING   MACHINES 

before  in  connection  with  a  huge  captive  bal- 
loon which  was  then  being  exhibited  there. 
They  at  once  received  orders  to  establish  two 
balloon  factories,  and  begin  making  a  large 
number  of  balloons  as  quickly  as  possible. 
For  their  workshops  they  were  given  the  use 
of  two  great  railway  stations,  then  standing 
idle  and  deserted.  No  better  places  for  the 
purpose  could  be  imagined,  for  under  the 
great  glass  roofs  there  was  plenty  of  space, 
and  the  work  went  on  apace. 

As  the  balloons  were  intended  to  make  only 
one  journey  each,  plain  white  or  coloured 
calico  (of  which  there  was  plenty  in  the 
city),  covered  with  quick-drying  varnish,  was 
considered  good  enough  for  their  material. 
Hundreds  of  men  and  women  were  employed 
at  the  two  factories ;  and  altogether  some 
sixty  balloons  were  turned  out  during  the 
siege.  Their  management  was  entrusted  to 
sailors,  who,  of  all  men,  seemed  most  fitted 
for  the  work.  The  only  previous  training 
that  could  be  given  them  was  to  sling  them 
up  to  the  roof  of  the  railway  stations  in  a 
balloon  car,  and  there  make  them  go  through 
the  actions  of  throwing  out  ballast,  dropping 
the  anchor,  and  pulling  the  valve-line.  This 
was,  of  course,  very  like  learning  to  swim  on 
dry  land  ;  nevertheless,  these  amateurs  made, 
on  the  whole,  very  fair  aeronauts. 

But  before  the  first  of  the  new  balloons  was 
ready  experiments  were  already  being  made 


THE    BALLOON    IN   WARFARE  75 

with  the  few  old  balloons  then  in  Paris.  Two 
were  moored  captive  at  different  ends  of  the 
town  to  act  as  observation  stations  from 
whence  the  enemy's  movements  could  be 
watched.  Captive  ascents  were  made  in  them 
every  few  hours.  Meanwhile  M.  Duruof,  a 
professional  aeronaut,  made  his  escape  from 
the  city  in  an  old  and  unskyworthy  balloon 
called  "  Le  Neptune,"  descending  safely  out- 
side the  enemy's  lines,  while  another  equally 
successful  voyage  was  made  with  two  small 
balloons  fastened  together. 

And  then,  as  soon  as  the  possibility  of 
leaving  Paris  by  this  means  was  fully  proved, 
an  important  new  development  arose.  So 
far,  as  was  shown,  tidings  of  the  besieged  city 
could  be  conveyed  to  the  outside  world ;  but 
how  was  news  from  without  to  reach  those 
imprisoned  within?  The  problem  was  pre- 
sently solved  in  a  most  ingenious  way. 

There  was  in  Paris,  when  the  siege  com- 
menced, a  society  or  club  of  pigeon-fanciers 
who  were  specially  interested  in  the  breeding 
and  training  of  "  carrier  "  or  "homing"  pigeons. 
The  leaders  of  this  club  now  came  forward 
and  suggested  to  the  authorities  that,  with 
the  aid  of  the  balloons,  their  birds  might  be 
turned  to  practical  account  as  letter-carriers. 
The  idea  was  at  once  taken  up,  and  hence- 
forward every  balloon  that  sailed  out  of  Paris 
contained  not  only  letters  and  despatches,  but 
also   a  number  of  properly  trained   pigeons, 


70  BALLOONS    AND    FLYING    MACHINES 

which,  when  liberated,  would  find  their  way 
back  to  their  homes  within  the  walls  of  the 
besieged  city. 

When  the  pigeons  had  been  safely  brought 
out  of  Paris,  and  fallen  into  friendly  hands  be- 
yond the  Prussian  forces,  there  were  attached 
to  the  tail  feathers  of  each  of  them  goose 
quills,  about  two  inches  long,  fastened  on  by  a 
silken  thread  or  thin  wire.  Inside  these  were 
tiny  scraps  of  photographic  film,  not  much 
larger  than  postage  stamps,  upon  which  a  large 
number  of  messages  had  been  photographed 
by  microscopic  photography.  So  skilfully  was 
this  done  that  each  scrap  of  film  could  contain 
2500  messages  of  twenty  words  each.  A  bird 
might  easily  carry  a  dozen  of  these  films,  for 
the  weight  was  always  less  than  one  gramme, 
or  15£  grains.  One  bird,  in  fact,  arrived  in 
Paris  on  the  3rd  of  February  carrying  eighteen 
films,  containing  altogether  40,000  messages. 
To  avoid  accidents,  several  copies  of  the  same 
film  were  made,  and  attached  to  different  birds. 
When  any  of  the  pigeons  arrived  in  Paris  their 
despatches  were  enlarged  and  thrown  on  a 
screen  by  a  magic-lantern,  then  copied  and 
sent  to  those  for  whom  they  were  intended. 

This  system  of  balloon  and  pigeon  post 
went  on  during  the  whole  siege.  Between 
sixty  and  seventy  balloons  left  the  city,  carry- 
ing altogether  nearly  200  people,  and  two 
and  a  half  million  letters,  weighing  in  all 
about    ten    tons.      The   greater    number    of 


THE    BALLOON    IN    WARFARE  77 

these  arrived  in  safety,  while  the  return  jour- 
neys, accomplished  by  the  birds,  were  scarcely 
less  successful.  The  weather  was  very  un- 
favourable during  most  of  the  time,  and  cold 
and  fogs  prevented  many  pigeons  from  making 
their  way  back  to  Paris.  Of  360  birds  brought 
safely  out  of  the  city  by  balloon  only  about 
60  returned,  but  these  had  carried  between 
them  some  100,000  messages. 

Of  the  balloons  themselves  two,  each  with  its 
luckless  aeronaut,  were  blown  out  to  sea  and 
never  heard  of  more.  Two  sailed  into  Ger- 
many and  were  captured  by  the  enemy,  three 
more  came  down  too  soon  and  fell  into  the 
hands  of  the  besieging  army  near  Paris,  and 
one  did  not  even  get  as  far  as  the  Prussian 
lines.  Others  experienced  accidents  and 
rough  landings  in  which  their  passengers  were 
more  or  less  injured.  Moreover,  each  balloon 
which  sailed  by  day  from  the  city  became 
at  once  a  mark  for  the  enemy's  fire  ;  so  much 
so  that  before  long  it  became  necessary  to 
make  all  the  ascents  by  night,  under  cover 
of  darkness. 

They  were  brave  men  indeed  who  dared 
face  the  perils  of  a  night  voyage  in  an  un- 
tried balloon,  manned  by  an  unskilled  pilot, 
and  exposed  to  the  fire  of  the  enemy,  into 
whose  hands  they  ran  the  greatest  risk  of 
falling.  It  is  small  wonder  there  was  much 
excitement  in  Paris  when  it  became  known 
that  the  first  of  the  new  balloons  made  during 


78  BALLOONS    AND    FLYING   MACHINES 

the  siege  was  to  take  away  no  less  a  personage 
than  M.  Gambetta,  the  great  statesman,  who 
was  at  the  time,  and  for  long  after,  the  leading 
man  in  France.  He  made  his  escape  by 
balloon  on  the  7th  of  October,  accompanied 
by  his  secretary  and  an  aeronaut,  and  man- 
aged to  reach  a  safe  haven,  though  not  before 
they  had  been  vigorously  fired  at  by  shot 
and  shell,  and  M.  Gambetta  himself  had 
actually  been  grazed  on  the  hand  by  a 
bullet. 

Another  distinguished  man  who  hazarded  the 
same  perilous  feat,  though  for  a  very  different 
reason,  was  M.  Janssen,  a  famous  astronomer. 
On  the  22nd  of  December  of  that  year  there 
was  to  take  place  an  important  total  eclipse 
of  the  sun,  which  would  be  visible  in  Spain 
and  Algeria.  It  had  long  been  M.  Janssen's 
intention  to  observe  this  eclipse,  and  for  this 
purpose  he  had  prepared  a  special  telescope 
and  apparatus ;  but  when  the  time  drew  near 
he  found  himself  and  his  instruments  shut  up 
in  besieged  Paris,  with  no  possible  means  of 
escape  except  the  dangerous  and  desperate 
hazard  of  a  voyage  by  sky. 

But  so  great  was  the  astronomer's  en- 
thusiasm for  his  work,  that  he  resolved  to 
brave  even  this  risk.  Taking  the  essential 
parts  of  his  telescope  with  him,  and,  as  aero- 
naut, an  active  young  sailor,  he  set  sail  in 
the  darkness  of  a  winter's  morning,  long 
before  dawn,  passed  safely  over  the  enemy's 


THE    BALLOON    IN   WARFARE  79 

lines,  and  continued  the  voyage  till  nearly 
mid-day,  when  they  sighted  the  sea,  and 
came  down  near  the  mouth  of  the  river 
Loire,  having  travelled  300  miles  in  little 
more  than  five  hours.  Neither  Janssen  or 
his  telescope  were  injured  in  the  descent, 
though  the  wind  was  high  at  the  time ;  and 
both  reached  Algeria  in  time  for  the  eclipse. 
It  must  have  been  a  most  bitter  disappoint- 
ment to  the  ardent  astronomer,  after  all  his 
exertions,  that  when  the  great  day  arrived 
the  sun  was  hidden  by  clouds,  and  he  was 
unable  to  observe  the  sight  for  which  he  had 
risked  so  much. 

Since  the  Franco-Prussian  war,  military 
ballooning  has  been  largely  developed,  and 
now  all  great  armies  possess  their  properly 
equipped  and  trained  balloon  corps.  The 
balloons  in  use  in  the  British  Army  at  the 
present  day  are  made,  not  of  silk,  but  of  gold- 
beater's skin,  a  very  thin,  but  extremely  tough 
membrane  prepared  from  the  insides  of  oxen. 
This  is,  of  course,  much  stronger  and  more 
durable  than  ordinary  balloon  fabric,  but  much 
more  expensive.  The  balloons  are  compara- 
tively small  ones,  of  10,000  feet  capacity,  and 
are  inflated  with  hydrogen.  The  hydrogen  is 
now  no  longer  made  upon  the  field,  but  is 
manufactured  in  special  factories,  and  carried 
compressed  in  large  steel  cylinders.  By  this 
means  the  time  occupied  in  filling  the  balloon 
is    much    reduced,    but    the    weight    of   the 


80  BALLOONS    AND    FLYING   MACHINES 

cylinders  is  very  great.  As  will  be  remem- 
bered, balloons  were  made  of  considerable  use 
during  the  late  Boer  War.  At  the  siege  of 
Ladysmith  they  were  thought  of  much  value 
in  directing  the  fire  of  the  British  Artillery, 
and  again  at  Spion  Kop  and  Magersfontein 
are  said  to  have  done  good  service. 

So  far  we  have  shown  of  what  use  balloons 
may  be  in  times  of  peace  and  war.  Every 
year  sees  fresh  improvements  and  develop- 
ments in  balloons  for  military  purposes  and  in 
those  employed  for  making  meteorological  and 
other  similar  observations ;  and  there  is  no 
doubt  that  great  advances  may  shortly  be 
expected  in  both  these  directions.  But  there 
is  yet  another  and  totally  different  science  to 
which  the  balloon  may  lend  its  aid,  and  help 
greatly  to  add  to  our  knowledge ;  and  this  is 
the  science  of  geography,  or  the  study  of  the 
earth's  surface. 

One  of  the  earliest  ideas  suggested  by  Mont- 
golfier's  invention  was  that  the  balloon  might 
be  turned  to  practical  account  in  the  exploring 
of  unknown  and  inaccessible  tracts  of  the  world. 
It  was  suggested  that  in  a  balloon  men  might 
sail  over  and  survey  country  that  they  were 
not  able  to  reach  in  any  other  way.  Deserts 
could  be  crossed  in  this  fashion,  forests  and 
mountain  ranges,  and  even  the  desolate  ice- 
tracts  of  the  North  and  South  Poles. 

All  this  is,  in  truth,  perfectly  possible,  and 
another   day   may   be   accomplished ;    but  at 


THE    BALLOON    IN    WARFARE  81 

present  great  difficulties  and  dangers  stand  in 
the  way  of  exploring  by  balloon,  and  up  to 
the  present  time,  with  one  great  exception, 
no  special  attempt  has  been  made.  It  has 
already  been  mentioned  that  both  Wise  and 
Green  wished  to  cross  the  Atlantic  by  sky, 
and  indeed  at  the  present  moment  plans  are 
actually  being  made  on  the  Continent  for  a 
similar  voyage.  This,  however,  can  scarcely 
be  called  exploring.  Other  suggestions 
which  may  presently  be  put  to  the  test 
are  the  crossing  of  the  Sahara,  and  also  of 
another  great  desert  in  Central  Arabia,  into 
which  no  white  man  has  ever  succeeded  in 
penetrating.  Recent  expeditions  both  to  the 
North  and  South  Poles  have  also  taken  with 
them  balloons  to  be  used  captive  for  the 
observation  of  the  state  of  the  ice  ahead, 
and  for  obtaining  wide  views  around. 

The  one  great  attempt  at  exploring  by 
balloon  which  has  so  far  been  made  has,  un- 
fortunately, met  with  hopeless  and  terrible 
disaster — this  was  the  ill-fated  voyage  to  the 
North  Pole  of  Andree  and  his  companions. 
The  idea  of  reaching  the  Pole  by  balloon 
was  first  proposed  many  years  ago,  and  both 
French  and  English  aeronauts  at  different 
times  have  made  suggestions  as  to  the  best 
way  in  which  it  might  be  accomplished. 
Nothing,  however,  was  attempted  until  about 
the  year  1894,  when  M.  S.  A.  Andree,  a  well- 
known  Swedish  balloonist,  who  had  already 


82  BALLOONS    AND   FLYING   MACHINES 

met  with  exciting  experiences  in  the  air,  made 
up  his  mind  actually  to  risk  the  venture. 

His  plan  was  to  take  a  suitable  balloon,  and 
the  apparatus  for  inflating  it,  to  a  place  as  far 
north  as  a  ship  could  safely  go,  then  to  fill 
the  balloon  and  wait  for  a  favourable  wind 
which  should  carry  him  right  over  the  Pole  and 
beyond  until  inhabited  country  was  reached. 
By  the  summer  of  1896  all  his  preparations 
were  complete.  His  balloon  was  an  enormous 
one,  capable  of  holding  162,000  cubic  feet  of 
gas,  and  was  fitted  Avith  a  rudder  sail  and  a 
long  trail-rope,  by  means  of  which  Andree 
hoped  to  be  able  to  some  extent  to  steer  his 
course  across  the  ice.  Two  companions  were 
to  accompany  him  on  his  voyage,  and  on  June 
7th  the  party  embarked  with  all  their  appa- 
ratus, and  were  conveyed  to  Spitzbergen. 

They  landed  at  Dane's  Island,  where  their 
first  work  was  to  build  themselves  a  shed. 
They  then  got  their  gas-making  apparatus 
into  order,  and  filled  the  balloon,  and  by  the 
27th  of  July  were  all  ready  for  a  start.  But 
the  wind  was  contrary,  and  day  after  day  they 
waited  in  vain  for  a  change,  until  at  last  the 
captain  of  the  ship  which  had  brought  them 
warned  them  they  would  be  frozen  in  for  the 
winter  unless  they  returned  without  delay. 
Very  reluctantly,  therefore,  they  abandoned 
their  venture  for  that  year,  and  went  home, 
leaving  behind  them  the  shed  and  gas-gener- 
ator for  another  occasion. 


THE   BALLOON    IN    WARFARE  83 

The  winter  passed,  and  by  the  end  of  next 
May  they  were  back  again  at  Dane's  Island. 
Their  shed  and  apparatus  had  suffered  damage 
during  their  absence,  and  had  to  be  repaired, 
and  their  preparations  were  not  complete  until 
the  end  of  June.  But  again  the  wind  was 
contrary,  and  for  three  weeks  more  they  waited 
impatiently.  All  this  while  the  balloon  re- 
mained inflated,  and  by  the  long  delay  must 
have  lost  a  considerable  amount  of  its  buoy- 
ancy. At  last  the  wind  changed,  and  though 
it  was  not  exactly  in  the  direction  they  wished, 
being  a  little  west  of  south,  instead  of  due 
south,  Andree  felt  he  could  wait  no  longer, 
and  at  half-past  two  in  the  afternoon  of  July 
11th  set  sail,  with  his  two  friends,  on  his  daring 
voyage. 

What  followed  is  soon  told.  Eleven  days 
later  one  of  the  carrier  pigeons  taken  by 
Andree  in  his  balloon  was  picked  up  by  a 
fishing-boat  off  Spitzbergen.  Fastened  to  it 
was  the  following  message:  —  "July  13th,' 
12.30  p.m.  82°  2'  north  lat.,  15°  5'  east  long. 
Good  journey  eastward.  All  goes  well  on 
board. — Andree." 

This  was  the  latest  news  ever  heard  of  the 
ill-fated  voyagers.  Later  on  two  of  Andree's 
buoys,  thrown  out  from  the  balloon,  were 
found  ;  but  the  messages  these  contained  were 
dated  on  the  evening  of  July  11th,  only  a  few 
hours  after  the  start.  If  the  date  of  the  first 
found  message  can  be  relied  on,  it  would  seem 


84         BALLOONS   AND   FLYING  MACHINES 

that  after  forty-eight  hours  Andree's  balloon 
was  still  sailing  well,  and  he  had  already 
accomplished  the  longest  voyage  aloft  ever 
made. 

Of  his  subsequent  fate,  and  that  of  his  com- 
panions, nothing  is  known.  Search  expedi- 
tions have  failed  to  find  any  trace  of  them  or 
of  the  balloon,  and  the  many  rumours  received 
have  been  proved  to  be  false.  There  can  be 
no  possible  reason  to  doubt  that  these  brave 
men  perished  in  their  daring  attempt,  and  that 
their  bones  lie  in  the  Arctic  Sea  or  in  the  waste 
of  ice  and  snow  that  surrounds  the  Pole. 


CHAPTER   VI 

THE  AIRSHIP 

So  far  in  our  story  we  have  traced  the  origin 
and  progress  of  the  balloon,  showing  how  from 
small  beginnings  it  has  grown  to  be  an  im- 
portant invention,  of  great  use  to  the  scientific 
observer,  the  soldier,  and  the  explorer,  and  the 
means  of  teaching  us  much  fresh  knowledge. 

But  in  spite  of  the  high  hopes  of  early 
aeronauts,  and  the  extravagant  prophecies 
made  when  the  first  balloons  ascended  into 
the  sky,  it  has  long  been  evident  that  the 
balloon  alone  has  not  solved  the  problem  of 
human   flight  or  accomplished   the   conquest 


THE    AIRSHIP  85 

of  the  air.  An  ordinary  balloon  is,  in  fact, 
nothing  more  than  a  mere  lifting  machine, 
no  more  capable  of  sailing  the  sky,  in  the 
proper  sense  of  the  word,  than  a  cork  floating 
in  the  water  is  capable  of  sailing  the  sea.  It 
has  no  movement  of  its  own,  but  drifts  simply 
at  the  mercy  of  the  wind,  and  quite  beyond 
control.  By  the  discharge  of  ballast,  or  by 
the  letting  out  of  gas,  the  aeronaut  can  indeed 
cause  it  to  rise  or  sink  at  pleasure,  and  some- 
times when  two  currents  of  air  are  blowing 
aloft  in  different  directions  at  the  same  time 
he  may,  by  passing  from  one  to  the  other, 
"  tack  "  his  balloon  to  some  extent  across  the 
sky.  Otherwise  he  has  no  power  of  guiding 
or  directing  it  in  the  least  degree,  and  should 
he  lose  sight  of  the  earth  above  the  clouds, 
has  even  no  method  of  telling  in  which 
direction  he  is  travelling. 

Early  inventors  thought  they  would  be  able 
to  steer  balloons  by  means  of  sails,  like  a  boat, 
but  they  soon  found  that  this  was  impossible. 
The  effect  of  hoisting  a  sail  at  the  side  of 
a  balloon  was  merely  to  swing  the  balloon 
round  until  the  sail  was  in  front,  while  mean- 
time it  continued  its  course  unaltered.  The 
use  of  a  rudder  and  other  means  were  also 
tried,  but  without  success ;  nor  can  such 
methods  ever  hope  to  succeed  so  long  as  a 
balloon  floats  in  the  air  at  the  same  pace  as 
the  wind  that  carries  it  forward.  A  balloon 
travelling  with   the  wind  may  be  compared 


86  BALLOONS    AND    FLYING   MACHINES 

to  a  boat  drifting  idly  with  the  tide.  As 
long  as  she  drifts  she  refuses  to  answer  her 
rudder,  which  swings  idly.  But  presently  the 
boatman  hoists  a  sail,  and  the  wind  carries  the 
boat  onwards  faster  than  the  tide,  and  then 
immediately  the  rudder  comes  into  action. 
Or  should  there  be  no  wind,  he  may  accom- 
plish the  same  thing  by  dragging  an  anchor 
or  other  weight  in  the  water,  and  so  slowing 
his  boat  down  until  it  moves  slower  than 
the  current ;  he  will  then  again  find  that  his 
boat  will  answer  her  helm. 

To  steer  his  course  in  a  balloon,  therefore, 
the  aeronaut  must  so  arrange  that  he  is 
travelling  faster  or  slower  than  the  wind  in 
which  he  finds  himself.  To  travel  faster,  he 
must  employ  some  sort  of  engine  or  motor 
to  drive  his  craft  onwards.  To  travel  slower, 
he  must  trail  something  along  the  ground 
beneath  to  act  as  a  drag. 

Part  of  the  equipment  of  every  balloon  is 
a  long  trail-rope,  which,  when  the  balloon 
is  aloft,  hangs  some  300  feet  below  the  car. 
The  object  of  this  rope  is  to  break  the  force 
of  the  fall  when  the  balloon  comes  down  to 
the  earth  at  the  end  of  the  voyage.  In  the 
greater  number  of  cases  a  balloon,  in  its  final 
swoop  to  the  ground,  falls  the  last  few  hundred 
feet  with  considerable,  and  often  uncomfort- 
able, speed.  But  when  provided  with  a  trail- 
rope,  as  it  descends  more  and  more  of  the 
heavy  rope  will  lie  along  the  ground,  and  so 


THE    AIRSHIP  87 

lighten  the  weight  of  the  balloon,  and  lessen 
the  shock  of  falling. 

If  then  a  trail-rope  were  used  of  such  length 
that  it  would  sweep  along  the  ground  while 
the  balloon  was  flying  in  the  air,  the  effect 
would  be  to  put  a  drag  or  brake  on  the 
balloon,  and  so  render  it  capable  of  being 
steered  to  some  extent  with  a  sail ;  and  this 
is  what  has  actually  been  done  in  all  attempts 
of  the  kind.  But  since  a  long  rope  dragging 
rapidly  across  the  country  is  a  very  dangerous 
object,  capable  of  doing  great  damage,  and 
also  liable  to  catch  in  trees  and  other  obstacles, 
such  experiments  can  only  be  tried  with  safety 
over  the  sea,  or,  as  in  the  case  of  Andree's 
voyage,  over  desert  or  uninhabited  country. 

The  best  way  of  steering  a  balloon,  there- 
fore, is  to  provide  it  with  some  mechanical 
power  which  shall  urge  it  onwards  at  a  greater 
speed  than  the  wind ;  and  when  this  is  done, 
it  has  ceased  to  be  a  balloon  in  the  popular 
sense  of  the  word,  and  has  become  an  "  air- 
ship." 

There  is  a  great  deal  of  confusion  between 
the  terms  "airship,"  and  "flying  machine," 
and  the  two  words  are  often  considered  as 
meaning  the  same  thing.  But  while,  strictly 
speaking,  neither  word  in  itself  has  any  very 
definite  meaning,  it  is  gradually  becoming 
more  general  to  apply  them  to  two  widely 
different  objects.  According  to  this  plan, 
although  both  names  stand  for  an  aerial  vessel 


88  BALLOONS    AND    FLYING    MACHINES 

capable  of  travelling  in  the  sky  by  its  own 
motion,  an  airship  is  a  machine  supported 
in  the  air  by  reason  of  its  buoyancy,  while 
a  flying  machine  is  kept  aloft  only  by  virtue 
of  its  onward  movement. 

In  other  words,  part  of  the  construction  of 
an  airship  consists  of  a  bag  or  balloon,  filled 
with  gas  or  hot  air,  which  causes  the  whole 
to  rise  and  maintain  its  position  in  the  air. 
This  balloon  part  is  quite  independent  of  the 
machinery  which  drives  the  airship  forward, 
and  indeed  if  the  engine  ceases  working,  the 
vessel  becomes  nothing  more  than  an  ordinary 
balloon  in  its  nature,  and  will  behave  like 
one.  An  airship,  therefore,  is  in  principle 
an  apparatus  lighter  than  air. 

A  flying  machine,  on  the  contrary,  is 
heavier  than  air,  and  maintains  its  position 
aloft  merely  by  the  power  it  obtains  from  its 
engines,  assisted  by  its  special  construction. 
The  inventors  of  flying  machines  take  as 
their  analogy  the  flight  of  birds.  Birds  are 
creatures  heavier  than  air,  which  yet  manage 
to  rise  and  fly  by  reason  of  the  strength  and 
construction  of  their  wings.  In  the  same 
way  the  heavy  flying  machine  essays  to  fly 
by  the  power  of  its  machinery.  And,  as  a 
bird  aloft,  if  its  wings  became  disabled,  would 
instantly  drop  towards  earth,  so  a  flying 
machine  would  immediately  commence  to 
fall  if  its  engine  stopped  or  ceased  to  move 
with  sufficient  power.     The  airship  and  the 


THE    AIKSHIP  89 

flying  machine,  therefore,  may  be  regarded 
as  rival  aerial  vessels,  and  their  inventors  and 
advocates,  sometimes  known  as  "  light er-than- 
air-ites"  and  "  heavier-than-air-ites,"  though 
both  working  for  the  same  end,  are  endeavour- 
ing to  accomplish  their  aim  by  widely  different 
methods. 

Up  to  the  present  day  the  airship — to  which 
we  will  first  turn  our  attention — has  been 
much  more  largely  and  successfully  experi- 
mented with  than  the  flying  machine.  It  is, 
however,  the  opinion  of  many,  including  the 
great  authority  Sir  Hiram  Maxim,  that  in  the 
future  the  flying  machine  will  become  the 
more  important  invention  of  the  two.  "  In 
all  Nature,"  says  Sir  Hiram,  "  we  do  not  find 
a  single  balloon.  All  Nature's  flying  machines 
are  heavier  than  air."  And  from  this  he  argues 
that,  as  Nature  is  ever  our  best  guide  and  ex- 
ample, a  flying  machine  heavier  than  air  will 
be  in  the  end  most  likely  to  succeed. 

One  of  the  earliest  airships  which  achieved 
any  success  was  invented  by  a  Frenchman, 
M.  Giffard,  about  the  year  1852.  He  made 
his  balloon  of  an  elongated  or  cigar  shape,  a 
form  adopted  by  airship  inventors  as  offering 
less  resistance  to  the  air  than  the  ordinary 
globular  or  pear  shape.  To  this  balloon, 
which  was  104  feet  long  and  39  feet  in 
diameter,  he  attached  a  steam-engine  of 
three-horse  power,  weighing  462  lbs.  and 
working    a    screw-propeller,    which,    by    its 


90  BALLOONS   AND    FLYING   MACHINES 

rapid  revolutions,  urged  the  balloon  onwards 
through  the  air,  even  as  the  screw  of  a  steam- 
ship urges  the  vessel  through  the  water. 
With  this  apparatus  he  succeeded  on  one 
occasion,  for  a  very  short  while,  in  obtaining  a 
speed  of  six  and  a  half  miles  an  hour.  Twenty 
years  later  another  Frenchman,  M.  Dupuy  de 
Lome,  constructed  another  airship  ;  but  fearing 
to  place  an  engine  so  near  the  gas  of  his  bal- 
loon, he  used  the  strength  of  eight  men  to  work 
his  screw.  This  was  a  very  wasteful  mode  of 
supplying  energy,  for  the  weight  of  the  men 
was  very  great  in  proportion  to  their  strength, 
and  this  machine,  during  its  trial,  did  not 
attain  as  great  a  speed  as  GifFard's.  Twelve 
years  after  a  third  Frenchman,  M.  Tissandier, 
took  up  the  same  experiments.  His  elongated 
balloon  was  smaller  than  the  two  previous, 
and  his  engine  was  an  electric  motor  of  one 
and  a  half  horse-power.  On  one  occasion 
a  speed  of  nearly  eight  miles  an  hour  was 
attained. 

By  this  time  the  French  Government  had 
become  interested  in  the  work,  and  provided 
money  to  continue  investigations.  The  result 
of  this  was  that  in  1885  two  officers  of  the 
French  army,  Captains  Renard  and  Krebs, 
brought  out  by  far  the  most  successful  airship 
yet  constructed.  It  was  165  feet  long,  27  feet 
in  diameter,  and  was  driven  by  an  electric 
motor  of  nine  horse-power.  That  this  machine 
proved  itself  perfectly  capable  of  being  guided 


THE    AIRSHIP  91 

in  the  air  is  amply  shown  by  the  fact  that 
it  returned  to  its  shed  five  times  out  of  the 
seven  on  which  it  was  publicly  taken  out. 
It  also  attained  a  speed  of  fourteen  miles  an 
hour,  and  indeed  it  would  seem  that  Renard 
and  Krebs,  although  their  names  are  now 
almost  forgotten,  accomplished  nearly  as  great 
things  twenty  years  ago  as  the  popular  air- 
ship inventors  of  the  present  day. 

One  of  the  greatest  difficulties  with  which 
early  inventors  had  to  contend  was  the  enor- 
mous weight  of  their  engines.  The  machinery 
they  were  obliged  to  use  to  drive  their  airships 
through  the  air  weighed  more  than  their  bal- 
loons, unless  made  of  unwieldy  size,  had  power 
to  lift.  The  same  difficulty  indeed  exists  at 
the  present  time,  though  to  a  much  less  degree. 
Of  late  years,  and  especially  since  the  intro- 
duction of  the  motor-car,  great  progress  has 
been  made  in  the  construction  of  light  but 
powerful  engines,  or  motors,  and  the  employ- 
ment of  petrol  vapour  instead  of  coal  or  oil 
has  very  greatly  lessened  the  weight  of  the 
fuel  which  has  to  be  carried. 

In  consequence  Of  this  improvement  many 
airships  have  recently  been  made  which  have 
met  with  varying  success,  and  many  more  are 
at  the  present  moment  in  process  of  construc- 
tion. Among  the  host  of  inventors,  whose 
names  it  would  here  be  impossible  even  to  men- 
tion, three  stand  out  from  the  rest  in  special 
prominence — Zeppelin,   Santos  Dumont,  and 


92  BALLOONS    AND    FLYING   MACHINES 

Stanley  Spencer  —  all  three  the  inventors  of 
airships  which  have,  by  actual  experience, 
proved  their  power  of  steering  a  course  across 
the  sky. 

Of  these  rival  airships,  by  far  the  largest 
and  most  elaborate  was  that  built  by  the  first 
named,  Count  Zeppelin,  a  distinguished  vet- 
eran soldier  of  the  German  army.  For  many 
years  he  had  spent  his  time  and  fortune  in 
making  experiments  in  aerial  navigation,  and 
at  length  in  1900,  having  formed  a  company 
and  collected  a  large  sum  of  money  for  the 
purpose,  he  produced  an  enormous  airship, 
which,  from  its  size,  has  been  compared  to  a 
man-of-war.  In  shape  Count  Zeppelin's  in- 
vention resembled  a  gigantic  cigar,  420  feet  in 
length,  pointed  at  both  ends.  The  frame- 
work was  made  of  the  specially  light  metal 
aluminium,  covered  over  with  silk,  and  though 
from  outside  it  looked  all  in  one  piece,  within 
it  was  divided  into  seventeen  compartments, 
each  holding  a  separate  balloon  made  of  oiled 
silk  and  absolutely  gas-tight.  The  object  of 
this  was  to  prevent  the  tendency  the  gas  has 
to  collect  all  at  one  end  as  the  ship  forces  its 
way  through  the  air.  These  balloons  were 
filled  with  pure  hydrogen,  the  cost  of  the  infla- 
tion alone  being  £500.  Beneath  was  slung  a 
long  gangway,  346  feet  in  length,  with  two 
cars,  also  made  of  aluminium,  attached  to  it, 
In  these  cars  were  placed  two  motor-engines 
of  sixteen  horse-power  each,  driven  by  benzine,. 


THE    AIRSHIP 


93 


and  working  a  pair  of  screw-propellers  attached 
to  the  balloon.  A  steering  apparatus  was 
placed  at  each  end,  and  the  whole  machine, 
with  five  passengers,  weighed  about  eleven 
tons. 

To  lessen  the  effects  of  a  possible  fall,  the 


Zeppelin's  Aieship  over  Lake  Constance. 

experiments  were  carried  out  over  water,  and 
the  great  airship  was  housed  in  a  shed  built  on 
Lake  Constance.  The  cost  of  this  shed  alone 
was  enormous,  for  it  was  elaborately  con- 
structed on  pontoons,  and  anchored  in  such 
a  way  that  it  could  be  turned  round  to  allow 
the  airship  to  be  liberated  from  it  in  the  best 


94  BALLOONS    AND    FLYING    MACHINES 

direction  to  suit  the  wind.  The  trial  trip  was 
made  one  evening  in  June  1900,  when  a  very 
light  wind  was  blowing.  The  great  machine 
rose  into  the  air,  carrying  Zeppelin  and  four 
companions  to  a  height  of  800  feet.  The 
steering  apparatus  then  being  put  into  action, 
it  circled  round  and  faced  the  wind,  remained 
stationary  for  a  short  while,  and  then  sank 
gracefully  and  gently  upon  the  water.  A  few 
days  later  another  and  more  successful  trial 
was  made.  The  wind  at  the  time  was  blow- 
ing at  sixteen  miles  an  hour,  but  in  spite  of 
this  the  airship  slowly  steered  its  course  against 
the  wind  for  three  and  a  half  miles,  when,  one 
of  the  rudders  breaking,  it  was  obliged  to  come 
down.  On  one  or  two  other  occasions  also  it 
made  successful  voyages,  proving  itself  to  be 
perfectly  manageable  and  capable  of  being 
steered  on  an  absolutely  calm  day.  The  expense 
of  the  experiments  was,  however,  tremendous ; 
money  fell  short,  and  the  great  machine,  the 
result  of  many  years'  labour  and  thought,  has 
since  been  abandoned  and  broken  up. 

A  far  happier  fate  has  so  far  attended  the 
efforts  of  the  brave  young  Brazilian,  Albert 
Santos  Dumont.  The  wealthy  son  of  a  suc- 
cessful coffee-planter,  he  had  always  from  his 
boyhood  been  keenly  interested  in  aeronautics, 
and,  coming  to  Paris,  he  constructed  in  1898 
an  airship  of  a  somewhat  novel  kind.  His 
balloon  was  cigar-shaped,  83  feet  long,  and 
holding   6500   feet   of  pure   hydrogen.      At- 


THE    AIRSHIP 


95 


tached  to  the  balloon,  and  working  a  propeller, 
was  a  small  motor  like  those  used  for  motor 
cycles,  and   astride   of  this    Santos   Dumont 


Santos  Dumont's  Airship. 

rode,  bicycle  fashion,  steering  his  course  with 
a  rudder.  In  this  ingenious  machine  he 
ascended  from  the  Botanical  Gardens  in  Paris 
and  circled  several  times  round  the  large 
captive  balloon  then  moored  there,  after  which 


96  BALLOONS    AND    FLYING    MACHINES 

he  made  a  number  of  bold  sweeps  in  the  air, 
until  an  accident  occurred  to  his  engine  and 
he  came  precipitately  to  the  ground.  Though 
shaken  he  was  by  no  means  discouraged,  and 
declared  his  intention  of  continuing  his  ex- 
periments until  he  should  have  invented  an 
airship  which,  in  his  own  words,  should 
be  "  not  a  mere  plaything,  but  a  practical 
invention,  capable  of  being  applied  in  a 
thoroughly  useful  fashion." 

Accordingly  he  constructed  one  machine 
after  another,  gaining  fresh  knowledge  by 
each  new  experience,  and  profiting  by  the  acci- 
dents and  failures  which  continually  beset  him 
in  his  dangerous  and  daring  work.  Before 
long  also  he  received  an  additional  incentive 
to  his  labours.  Early  in  the  year  of  1900  it 
was  announced  by  the  Paris  Aero  Club,  a 
society  of  Frenchmen  interested  in  aero- 
nautical matters,  that  one  of  its  members, 
M.  Deutsch,  had  offered  a  prize  of  100,000 
francs — about  £4000 — to  the  man  who,  start- 
ing from  the  Aero  Club  grounds  at  Long- 
champs  in  a  balloon  or  flying  machine,  should 
steer  his  course  right  round  the  Eiffel  Tower 
and  back  to  the  starting-place — a  distance  of 
three  and  a  half  miles — within  half  an  hour. 
If  the  prize  were  not  won  within  a  certain 
time,  his"  offer  was  to  be  withdrawn,  and 
meanwhile  he  promised  a  certain  sum  of 
money  every  year  for  the  encouragement  of 
aeronautical  experiments. 


THE    AIRSHIP  97 

The  offer  of  this  reward  set  many  inventors 
to  work  upon  the  construction  of  various 
aerial  vessels  of  all  kinds,  but  from  the  begin- 
ning Santos  Dumont  was  well  to  the  fore. 
By  the  middle  of  1901  he  had  completed  what 
was  his  sixth  airship — a  cigar-shaped  balloon, 
100  feet  long,  its  propeller  worked  by  a  motor- 
car engine  of  fifteen  horse-power — and  with  it, 
on  July  15th,  he  made  a  splendid  attempt  for 
the  prize.  Starting  from  the  Club  grounds, 
he  reached  the  Eiffel  Tower  in  thirteen 
minutes,  and,  circling  round  it,  started  back 
on  his  homeward  journey.  But  this  time  his 
voyage  was  against  the  wind,  which  was  really 
too  strong  for  the  success  of  his  experiment ; 
part  of  his  engine  broke  down,  and  the  balance 
of  the  vessel  became  upset ;  and  although  he 
managed  to  fight  his  way  back  to  the  starting- 
point,  he  arrived  eleven  minutes  behind  time, 
and  so  failed  to  fulfil  M.  Deutsch's  conditions. 

Again,  on  the  9th  of  August,  having  in  the 
meantime  made  further  trials  with  his  machine, 
he  embarked  on  another  attempt  to  carry  off 
the  prize.  He  chose  the  early  hours  of  the 
morning,  starting  shortly  after  six  from  the 
Club  grounds,  where  only  a  few  friends,  among 
them  the  keenly  interested  M.  Deutsch,  were 
present.  The  day  was  apparently  perfect,  and 
when,  after  the  lapse  of  five  minutes  only,  he 
had  reached  the  Tower  and  swung  gracefully 
round  it,  every  one  was  convinced  that  this 
time  the  prize  was  certain  to  be  won.     But 


98  BALLOONS    AND   FLYING   MACHINES 

the  homeward  journey  was  all  against  the 
wind,  which  was  blowing  more  powerfully 
aloft  than  on  the  ground,  and  suddenly  the 
onlookers  were  horrified  to  see  the  fore  part  of 
the  balloon  double  right  back.  By  so  doing 
the  silken  envelope  became  torn  and  the  gas 
began  escaping.  Rapidly  the  balloon  appeared 
to  wither  up  and  shrink  together.  The  engine 
was  seen  still  to  be  working,  though  no  pro- 
gress was  now  being  made.  Then  the  whole 
apparatus  collapsed  utterly,  and  fell  with  sick- 
ening speed  upon  the  house-tops. 

Deutsch  and  his  companions  watched  the  fall 
horror-struck,  and  jumping  into  their  motor- 
cars hurried  to  the  spot,  convinced  that  a  fatal 
accident  must  have  occurred.  But  they  found 
that,  although  the  airship  was  smashed  to 
pieces,  its  plucky  inventor  had  almost  miracu- 
lously escaped  unhurt.  The  wrecked  machine 
had  fallen  upon  the  roof  of  a  house  in  such  a 
way  that  the  keel  had  caught  upon  a  corner, 
and  the  car,  which  was  fastened  to  it,  hung  at 
a  perilous  angle  down  the  side  of  a  wall.  For- 
tunately Dumont  was  secured  to  his  car  by  a 
leather  belt,  and  he  managed  to  hold  on, 
though  in  considerable  danger  lest  the  keel 
should  break  and  let  him  fall,  until  rescued  by 
a  fireman  with  a  rope.  His  machine  was 
hopelessly  ruined ;  but  when  asked  what  he 
intended  to  do  next  he  merely  answered : 
"  Begin  again.  Only  a  little  patience  is  neces- 
sary." 


THE    AIRSHIP  99 

A  new  machine,  "Santos  Dumont  VII.," 
was  ready  in  less  than  a  month,  and  tested  on 
the  6th  of  September.  It  behaved  beautifully, 
and  all  went  well  until  the  trail-rope  caught 
in  a  tree.  In  liberating  it  the  framework  be- 
came bent,  and  the  airship  was  being  towed 
back  to  its  shed  when  a  sudden  gust  of  wind 
tore  it  away  from  those  who  held  it.  It  im- 
mediately rose  into  the  air,  and  on  Dumont 
opening  the  valve  the  whole  collapsed  and  fell 
to  earth  with  a  great  shock.  Again  the  lucky 
inventor  escaped  unhurt,  though  owning  this 
time  that  he  had  "felt  really  frightened."  Ten 
days  later,  in  another  trial,  the  airship  came 
in  contact  with  some  trees,  which  pierced 
the  silk  and  let  out  the  gas,  so  that  it  fell 
precipitately  twenty  feet.  But  the  aeronaut 
appeared  to  bear  a  charmed  life,  for  once  more 
he  was  none  the  worse  for  the  fall.  Several 
other  unsuccessful  trials  followed,  and  then, 
on  the  19th  of  October,  Santos  Dumont  made 
another  grand  attempt  for  the  prize. 

Starting  with  the  wind  in  his  favour,  his 
machine  travelled  at  the  rate  of  thirty  miles 
an  hour,  and  rounded  the  Eiffel  Tower  in  nine 
minutes.  But  in  the  journey  homewards  the 
airship  had  to  struggle  with  a  wind  blowing 
at  thirteen  miles  an  hour.  In  endeavouring 
to  "tack"  the  machinery  became  upset,  and 
Dumont,  leaving  his  car,  crawled  along  the 
framework  to  the  motor,  which  he  succeeded 
in  putting  in  order  again.     But  this  naturally 


100        BALLOONS    AND    FLYING    MACHINES 

occasioned  some  delay,  and  though  he  accom- 
plished the  rest  of  his  journey  in  eight  minutes, 
the  Committee  at  first  decided  he  had  exceeded 
the  allotted  time  by  forty  seconds,  and  so  had 
lost  the  prize.  Great  popular  indignation  was 
excited  by  this  decision,  for  public  sympathy 
was  all  with  the  daring  and  persistent  young 
Brazilian,  and  M.  Deutsch  himself  was  most 
anxious  he  should  receive  the  award.  Finally, 
he  was  considered  to  have  fairly  won  it,  and 
the  money,  which  he  afterwards  divided  among 
the  poor,  was  formally  presented  to  him. 

Early  in  the  next  year  Santos  Dumont  con- 
tinued his  experiments  at  Monaco,  and  on  one 
occasion  came  down  in  the  sea,  and  had  to  be 
rescued  in  the  Prince  of  Monaco's  own  steam 
yacht.  After  this  there  was  a  talk  of  further 
voyages  being  made  in  England,  but  the  pro- 
ject came  to  nothing,  and  although  Dumont 
made  other  ascents  in  Paris  in  the  summer  of 
1903,  he  does  not  appear  to  have  eclipsed  his 
previous  record. 

But  although  Santos  Dumont  came  through 
all  his  accidents  and  perils  so  happily,  his 
example  led  to  terrible  disaster  on  the  part 
of  a  luckless  imitator.  In  1902  M.  Severo, 
also  a  Brazilian,  was  fired  with  a  desire  to 
share  his  fellow-countryman's  fame,  and  he 
also  constructed  an  airship  with  which  he 
proposed  to  do  great  things.  But  while 
Dumont  was  a  skilled  aeronaut  of  large  ex- 
perience,  as   well   as   a   mechanician,    Severo 


THE    AIRSHIP  101 

knew  scarcely  anything  about  the  subject, 
and  had  only  been  aloft  once  or  twice.  Proof 
of  his  ignorance  is  shown  by  the  fact  that  his 
motor-engine  was  placed  only  a  few  feet  away 
from  the  valve  through  which  the  gas  from 
the  balloon  would  escape. 

The  ascent  took  place  in  Paris  early  in  the 
morning  of  the  12th  of  May,  and  was  wit- 
nessed, unhappily,  by  Severo's  wife  and  son. 
Bidding  them  good-bye,  he  stepped  into  the 
car,  and,  accompanied  by  an  assistant,  rose 
above  the  town.  The  balloon  rose  steadily, 
and  appeared  to  steer  well.  Then  Severo 
commenced  to  throw  out  ballast,  and  when 
the  airship  had  risen  2000  feet  it  was  sud- 
denly seen  to  burst  into  a  sheet  of  flame 
A  terrible  explosion  followed,  and  then  the 
whole  fell  to  the  ground  a  hopeless  wreck, 
and  the  two  men  were  dashed  to  pieces  in  the 
fall.  It  is  believed  that  this  dreadful  disaster, 
which  recalls  the  fate  of  Pilatre  de  Rozier,  was 
caused  by  the  hydrogen  gas,  which  escaped 
from  the  valve  during  the  rapid  rise,  becoming 
ignited  by  the  engine,  which,  as  has  been  said, 
was  placed  dangerously  close. 

Nor  was  this,  unhappily,  the  only  accident 
of  the  kind  in  Paris  during  the  year.  Only 
five  months  later,  on  the  13th  of  October, 
Baron  Bradsky  ascended  with  an  assistant  in 
a  large  airship  of  his  own  invention.  Through 
faulty  construction,  the  steel  wires  which  fas- 
tened the  car  to  the  balloon  broke,  the  two 


102        BALLOONS    AND    FLYING    MACHINES 

became  separated,  the  car  fell,  and  its  occu- 
pants were  killed  on  the  spot. 

So  far,  the  credit  of  the  only  English  air- 
ship which  has  yet  flown  rests  with  Mr. 
Stanley  Spencer,  the  well-known  aeronaut. 
Mr.  Spencer  conies  of  a  race  of  aeronauts. 
His  grandfather,  Edward  Spencer,  was  the 
great  friend  and  colleague  of  Charles  Green, 
and  shared  with  him  some  of  his  chief  balloon- 
ing adventures,  notably  the  terrible  voyage 
when  Cocking  lost  his  life.  Green  stood 
godfather  to  Edward  Spencer's  son,  who  was 
christened  Charles  Green  after  him.  He  also 
grew  up  to  be  an  aeronaut,  and  made  several 
inventions  and  improvements  relating  to  bal- 
loons and  flying  machines.  His  love  of  balloon- 
ing, inherited  from  his  father,  has  been  passed 
on  to  his  children,  and  his  three  eldest  sons, 
Percival,  Arthur,  and  Stanley,  are  chief  among 
British  aeronauts,  and  indeed  have  practically 
the  monopoly  of  professional  ballooning  and 
balloon  manufacture  in  Great  Britain.  Nor 
have  they  confined  themselves  to  this  country. 
All  three  have  taken  their  balloons  and  para- 
chutes to  distant  parts  of  the  world,  and 
among  their  many  hundreds  of  ascents,  both 
abroad  and  at  home,  have  met  with  all  manner 
of  exciting  and  perilous  adventures,  though 
never  yet  with  serious  mishap.  Their  know- 
ledge of  practical  aeronautics,  then,  is  un- 
rivalled, and  Mr.  Stanley  Spencer  had  the 
experience     of    three    generations    to    guide 


THE    AIRSHIP  103 

him  when,  in  1902,  he  set  to  work  to 
build  an  airship  which  he  had  long  been 
devising. 

His  first  machine  was  a  comparatively  small 
one,  capable  only  of  lifting  a  light  man.  It 
took  the  usual  form  of  a  cigar-shaped  balloon, 
the  framework  of  which  was  built  of  bamboo, 
driven  forward  by  a  screw-propeller  worked  by 
a  small  petrol  engine.  Warned  by  the  fate 
of  the  unfortunate  Severo,  Mr.  Spencer  placed 
his  engine  far  away  from  the  valve.  Profiting 
also  by  Santos  Dumont's  experience,  he  con- 
structed his  balloon  in  such  a  manner  that, 
should  it  become  torn  and  the  gas  escape,  the 
empty  silk  would  collapse  into  the  form  of  a 
parachute  and  break  the  fall.  Furthermore, 
there  was  an  arrangement  by  which,  while 
aloft,  ordinary  air  could  be  forced  into  the 
balloon  to  replace  any  loss  of  gas,  and  so 
keep  the  silk  always  fully  inflated  and  "taut " 
— a  very  important  factor  in  a  machine  that 
has  to  be  driven  forward  through  the  atmos- 
phere. 

With  this  airship  Mr.  Spencer,  as  also  his 
equally  daring  wife,  made  several  highly  suc- 
cessful trials  at  the  Crystal  Palace,  when  it 
was  found  to  steer  well  and  answer  its  helm 
most  satisfactorily.  Mr.  Spencer  also  made 
two  long  voyages,  from  London  and  from 
Blackpool,  on  both  of  which  occasions  he 
found  he  could  manoeuvre  his  airship  with 
considerable    success,    make    circular    flights, 


104       BALLOONS    AND    FLYING    MACHINES 

and  sail  against  the  wind,  provided  it  was 
blowing  only  at  moderate  speed. 

Encouraged  by  his  success,  he  next  built  a 
similar  but  much  larger  machine,  nearly  a 
hundred  feet  long,  holding  30,000  cubic  feet 
of  gas,  and  driven  by  a  petrol  motor  of  twenty- 
four  horse-power.  In  this  case  the  propeller,  in- 
stead of  being  placed  at  the  rear,  as  in  general, 
is  at  the  front  of  the  airship,  thereby  pulling 
it  forward  through  the  air  instead  of  pushing 
it  from  behind.  By  this  arrangement  Mr. 
Spencer  thinks  his  balloon  would  have  less 
tendency  to  double  up  when  urged  against  a 
strong  wind.  The  steering  is  done  by  a  rudder 
sail  at  the  stern,  and  to  cause  his  machine  to 
sail  higher  or  lower,  the  aeronaut  points  its 
head  up  or  down  by  means  of  a  heavy  balance- 
rope. 

This  new  airship  was  ready  by  the  summer 
of  1 903,  but  the  unfavourable  weather  of  that 
stormy  season  again  and  again  interfered  with 
the  experiments.  On  the  17th  of  September 
Mr.  Spencer  announced  his  intention  of  sailing 
from  the  Crystal  Palace  round  the  dome  of 
St.  Paul's,  and  returning  to  his  starting-place. 
The  Cathedral  was  indeed  safely  reached,  but 
the  increasing  breeze,  now  blowing  half  a  gale, 
baffled  all  his  attempts  to  circle  round.  Again 
and  again,  till  his  hands  were  cut  and  bleeding 
with  the  strain  of  the  ropes,  he  brought  his 
machine  up,  quivering,  to  the  wind,  but  all  to 
no  purpose,  until  at  length,  abandoning  the 


THE    FLYING    MACHINE  105 

attempt,  he  sailed  with  the  current  to  Barnet. 
More  favourable  results  may  doubtless  be 
looked  for  with  better  weather  conditions. 

In  France  during  1903  the  brothers  Lebaudy 
made  some  successful  trips  with  an  airship  of 
their  own  construction.  Many  other  airships 
are  now  being  built  in  all  parts  of  the  world, 
in  preparation  for  the  aeronautical  competi- 
tions to  take  place  in  America  on  the  occasion 
of  the  St.  Louis  Exhibition  of  this  year. 


CHAPTER    VII 

THE    FLYING    MACHINE 

It  is  now  time  we  turn  our  attention  from 
the  airship  to  its  important  rival,  the  flying 
machine. 

At  first  sight  it  may  perhaps  appear  that 
so  far  the  flying  machine  has  accomplished 
less  than  the  airship,  and  gives  less  promise 
of  success,  since  up  to  the  present  time  no 
flying  machine  has  taken  a  man  any  distance 
into  the  air,  or  indeed  done  much  more  than 
just  lift  itself  off  the  ground.  Nevertheless 
those  who  have  made  a  study  of  the  matter 
are  full  of  hope  for  the  future.  Many  experts 
declare  that  already  the  limits  of  what  can 
be  done  with  the  airship,  which  depends  upon 
the  lifting  power  of  its  gas  to  raise  it  and 


106        BALLOONS    AND    FLYING    MACHINES 

to  sustain  it  in  the  air,  are  being  reached.  It 
has  indeed  been  proved  that  on  a  calm 
day,  or  with  only  a  light  breeze,  this  form 
of  sky  vessel  can  be  steered  safely  about  the 
heavens,  and  doubtless  as  engines  are  con- 
structed yet  lighter  and  more  powerful  in 
proportion  to  their  weight,  more  successful 
voyages  still  will  be  accomplished.  But  it 
is  extremely  doubtful  whether  an  airship 
can  ever  be  constructed  which  shall  be  able 
to  stand  against  a  gale  of  wind. 

So  long  as  a  balloon  sails  only  with  the 
breeze  it  offers  no  resistance  to  the  force  of 
the  wind,  and  can  be  made  of  the  lightest 
and  thinnest  material.  But  directly  it  has  to 
face  the  wind,  and  fight  its  way  against  it 
as  an  airship  must  do,  then  it  has  to  be 
made  of  sufficient  strength  and  rigidity  to 
withstand  the  wind's  power,  or  it  will  be 
blown  to  pieces.  To  make  so  large  a  thing 
as  an  airship  withstand  a  rough  wind,  it 
must  be  built  of  very  strong  and  rigid 
materials.  To  do  this  means  to  add  to  the 
weight  of  the  machine.  To  lift  the  increased 
weight,  a  larger  machine  which  can  hold 
more  gas  is  needed.  The  larger  the  machine 
the  more  surface  it  offers  to  the  wind,  and 
the  stronger  therefore  must  be  its  construc- 
tion. It  will  now  be  seen  that  we  are  arguing 
in  a  circle,  and  we  can  understand  that  a  point 
must  be  reached  in  the  making  of  airships 
when,  with  our  present  materials,  the  advan- 


THE    FLYING    MACHINE  107 

tage  gained  by  increase  of  strength  will  be 
more  than  counterbalanced  by  increased 
weight.  On  this  point  Sir  Hiram  Maxim 
says  :  "  It  is  not  possible  to  make  a  balloon, 
strong  enough  to  be  driven  through  the  air 
at  any  considerable  speed,  at  the  same  time 
light  enough  to  rise  in  the  air ;  therefore 
balloons  must  always  be  at  the  mercy  of  a 
wind  no  greater  than  that  which  prevails 
at  least  300  days  in  the  year;"  adding, 
"Those  who  seek  to  navigate  the  air  by 
machines  lighter  than  air  have,  I  think,  come 
practically  to  the  end  of  their  tether." 

With  the  flying  machine,  on  the  contrary, 
the  same  difficulty  does  not  arise.  Since  it 
is  at  all  times  heavier  than  air,  and  is  kept 
aloft  simply  by  its  motive  power  and  mechan- 
ism, its  weight  is  of  no  consequence,  pro- 
vided only  its  engine  is  sufficiently  powerful. 
It  may,  therefore,  be  built  as  rigidly  as  need 
be,  while,  from  its  size — which  is  much 
smaller  in  proportion  to  its  lifting  power  than 
in  the  case  of  the  airship— and  also  from 
its  construction,  it  is  much  less  liable  to  be 
affected  by  the  wind. 

In  constructing  a  flying  machine  which  is 
heavier  than  air  the  inventor  has  before  him 
two  examples  of  bodies  which,  though  heavier 
than  the  atmosphere,  yet  contrive  to  rise  up- 
wards into  the  sky  ;  these  are,  firstly,  birds,  and 
secondly,  the  familiar  schoolboy  toys,  kites. 
To   imitate   the   flying   powers  of  birds   and 


108       BALLOONS    AND    FLYING   MACHINES 

kites,  he  must  first  understand  the  means  by 
which  their  flight  is  accomplished ;  and  he 
will  find,  on  examination,  that  to  a  large 
extent  the  same  principle  underlies  each — the 
principle  of  what  is  termed  the  "  aeroplane." 
As  we  watch  birds — especially  large  birds, 


Kestkel. 


as  hawks  and  gulls— winging  their  way  about 
the  sky,  we  may  notice  that  their  flight  is 
accomplished  in  two  ways ;  either  they  are 
moving  through  the  air  by  flapping  their 
wings  up  and  down,  or  else  with  wings  wide 
outstretched  they  are  soaring  or  sailing  in  the 
air  for  long  times  together  without  apparently 
moving  their  wings  at  all.  Certain  birds,  such 
as  vultures  and  albatrosses,  possess  this  power 


THE    FLYING   MACHINE  109 

of  soaring  flight  to  an  extraordinary  degree, 
and  the  exact  way  in  which  they  keep  them- 
selves poised  aloft  is  indeed  still  a  mystery. 
We  cannot,  however,  as  we  watch,  say,  a 
hawk,  hovering  in  the  air  with  motionless 
wing,  help  being  struck  by  its  resemblance 
to  the  schoolboy's  kite,  kept  afloat  high  in 
the  sky  by  the  action  of  the  wind  properly 
applied  to  its  surface,  and  we  can  at  once 
see  that  the  bird  makes  use  of  the  same 
principle  as  the  kite  in  its  soaring  or  hovering 
flight.  Indeed,  just  as  a  kite  sinks  to  earth 
when  the  wind  drops,  so  in  a  dead  calm  even 
an  albatross  has  to  flap  its  wings  to  keep 
afloat. 

It  is  to  the  principle  of  the  kite,  therefore, 
that  the  inventor  of  the  flying  machine  must 
turn.  He  must  adapt  the  same  principle  to 
his  apparatus,  and  this  he  does  in  his  aeroplane, 
which,  as  will  be  seen,  is  an  all-important 
part  of  his  machine,  and  which,  in  its  simplest 
form,  is  nothing  more  or  less  than  a  kite. 

We  know  that  if  a  light  flat  body,  such 
as  a  kite,  is  lying  upon  the  ground,  and  the 
wind  gets  under  it  so  as  to  tilt  it,  it  will  be 
lifted  by  the  wind  into  the  air.  The  string  of 
a  kite  is  so  adjusted  that  as  the  kite  rises  it 
is  still  held  at  an  angle  to  the  wind's  force, 
and  so  long  as  the  kite  remains  tilted  at  the 
necessary  angle  so  long  it  will  continue  to 
rise  or  poise  itself  in  the  air  while  the  wind 
blows.    When  schoolboys  fly  their  kites  they 


110       BALLOONS    AND    FLYING   MACHINES 

choose  an  exposed  spot,  and  a  day  when  the 
wind  is  blowing  freshly  and  steadily.  One 
boy  throws  the  kite  into  the  air,  while  another, 
holding  the  string  to  which  it  is  fastened, 
draws  it  tight  by  running  with  it  against 
the  wind.  By  this  means  the  kite,  if  rightly 
adjusted,  is  held  at  the  proper  angle  to  the 
wind,  and  started  without  dragging  along 
the  ground  to  begin  with.  As  soon  as  the 
wind  has  fairly  caught  the  kite  and  carried 
it  up  into  the  air,  the  boy  who  holds  the 
string  need  run  no  longer,  but  if  the  breeze 
suddenly  fails,  and  the  kite  begins  to  drop, 
he  may  still  keep  his  toy  aloft  by  running 
quickly  along  and  dragging  the  kite  after 
him ;  the  artificial  wind  he  thus  creates  making 
up  for  the  lack  of  the  other. 

Now  let  us  suppose  that  there  is  no  string 
to  hold  the  kite  in  proper  position,  and  no 
boy  to  run  with  it;  but  that  their  places 
are  supplied  by  a  motor  and  propeller  to 
drive  it  through  the  air ;  while  at  the  same 
time  it  is  so  balanced  as  to  preserve  a  fitting 
angle  against  a  wind  of  its  own  making. 
We  should  then  have  a  true  flying  machine, 
heavier  than  air,  and  yet  capable  of  sailing 
through  the  sky. 

This  is  the  kind  of  flying  machine  that 
inventors  at  the  present  moment  are  trying  to 
produce.  They  have,  in  their  machines,  to 
reproduce  artificially  two  essential  conditions 
that  cause  a  kite  to  fly.     They  have  to  provide 


THE    FLYING   MACHINE  111 

a  substitute  for  the  strength  of  the  wind,  and 
also  a  substitute  for  the  pull  of  the  string  which 
keeps  the  kite  at  the  best  angle  to  profit  by 
that  strength.  The  first  they  achieve  by  using 
a  suitable  engine  or  motor,  and  the  second  by 
supplying  it  with  what  are  called  "  aeroplanes  " 
— large  flat  surfaces,  light  but  rigid,  inclined 
at  a  suitable  angle  to  the  horizon.  By  the  use 
of  these  the  power  of  the  engine  is  employed  to 
best  advantage  in  causing  the  machine  to  sail 
through  the  sky. 

The  great  advantage  of  the  aeroplane  over 
any  other  mode  of  flying  is  thus  described  by 
Major  Baden-Powell,  one  of  our  greatest  living 
authorities  on  aeronautical  matters :  "  When 
people  realise  that  in  the  case  of  the  aeroplane 
a  contrivance  like  the  awning  of  a  small  steam 
launch  is  capable  of  supporting  the  man  and 
the  engines,  and  that  in  the  case  of  the  balloon 
a  mass  like  a  big  ship  is  necessary  to  lift  the 
same  weight,  one  can  readily  understand  the 
advantages  of  the  aeroplane,  especially  when 
to  the  drawbacks  of  the  bulky  balloon  are 
added  the  great  difficulties  inherent  in  the 
retention  of  a  large  volume  of  expensive, 
inflammable,  and  subtle  gas,  ever  varying  in 
its  density." 

The  most  successful  inventors  of  flying 
machines  at  the  present  day  are  all  Americans, 
though  one  of  them  has  made  his  experiments 
on  this  side  of  the  Atlantic.  They  are  Sir 
Hiram  Maxim,  inventor  of  the  famous  gun, 


112       BALLOONS    AND    FLYING   MACHINES 

and  one  of  the  greatest  mechanicians  living ; 
Professor  Langley,  Secretary  of  the  Smith- 
sonian Institute,  Washington  ;  and  the  brothers 
Wright. 

Mr.  Maxim,  as  he  then  was,  commenced 
his  experiments  in  the  early  nineties.  As 
we  have  already  shown,  he  went  to  Nature 
for  his  guide,  and  in  constructing  his  flying 
machine  took  as  his  analogy  the  flight  of 
birds.  Birds  urge  their  way  onwards  in  the 
air  by  reason  of  the  strength  of  their  wings. 
A  flying  machine  must  do  the  same  by  the 
power  of  its  engine ;  and  as  a  bird's  wings 
must  be  strong  in  proportion  to  the  bird's 
weight,  so  the  strength  or  horse-power  of  the 
engine  must  stand  in  a  certain  proportion 
to  the  number  of  pounds  it  weighs.  Mr. 
Maxim's  first  task,  therefore,  was  to  discover 
what  proportion  this  must  be,  and  by  his 
experiments  he  arrived  at  a  conclusion  which 
Professor  Langley  in  America,  working  at 
the  same  task  at  the  same  time,  but  quite 
independently,  had  also  proved  to  be  true, 
namely,  that  the  faster  a  machine  travels 
through  the  air  the  greater  weight  it  may 
carry ;  or,  in  other  words,  the  quicker  a  body 
moves  through  the  atmosphere  the  less  ten- 
dency will  it  have  to  fall  to  the  ground.  A 
quick-flying  bird  like  an  albatross,  therefore, 
flies  with  less  exertion,  and  so  could  carry  a 
greater  weight,  than  a  slow-moving  bird  like  a 
goose.     It  must  therefore  be  to  the  advantage 


THE    FLYING   MACHINE 


113 


of  the  flying  machine  that  its  engines  should 
attain  as  great  a  speed  as  possible. 

Maxim's  next  task  was  to  construct  a  suit- 
able engine.  Light  but  powerful  engines  had 
not  then  reached  the  pitch  of  perfection  they 


The  Maxim  Airship. 

have  now,  and  his  results  proved  at  the  time  a 
perfect  revelation  of  what  could  be  done  in 
this  direction,  and  led  to  great  advances  beino- 
made.  & 

Next  came  the  designing  of  the  great 
machine  itself.  It  was  an  enormous  apparatus, 
weighing  over  three  tons,  capable  of  carrying 
three  men,  and  supported  by  no  less  than  4000 


114       BALLOONS    AND   FLYING    MACHINES 

square  feet  of  aeroplanes,  placed  one  above  the 
other.  Its  steam-engine  was  of  363  horse- 
power, and  worked  two  screws  of  nearly  18 
feet  in  diameter.  Before  such  a  machine  could 
rise  from  the  ground  it  must  first  have  attained 
a  very  great  forward  impetus,  and  this  it  was 
to  receive  by  running  at  a  great  speed  on 
wheels  along  a  railway  track  specially  laid 
down  for  it.  To  prevent  the  apparatus  rising 
unduly,  a  reversed  rail  was  erected  a  short 
distance  above,  on  which  the  machine  would 
begin  to  run  as  soon  as  it  lifted  itself  off  the 
lower  track.  Along  this  railway  the  flying 
machine  was  tested,  and  it  was  found  that  as 
soon  as  a  speed  of  thirty-six  miles  an  hour  was 
reached  the  wheels  were  lifted  clear  off  the 
ground,  and  were  running  only  upon  the  upper 
rail.  On  the  last  occasion  a  speed  of  forty-two 
miles  an  hour  was  attained,  when  the  lifting 
power  became  so  great  that  the  restraining  rail 
broke  away  altogether,  and  the  great  flying 
machine  actually  floated  in  the  air  for  a  few 
moments,  "  giving  those  on  board  the  sensation 
of  being  in  a  boat,"  until,  steam  being  shut  off, 
it  fell  to  the  ground  and  was  broken. 

The  enormous  expense  of  his  experiments 
has  not  prevented  Sir  Hiram  Maxim  from 
repeating  them,  and  he  hopes  soon  to  have 
a  much  improved  machine.  Nevertheless  his 
experience  and  calculations  have  been  of  great 
value  to  those  who  would  follow  in  his  foot- 
steps, and  have  proved  the  possibility  of  con- 


THE   FLYING   MACHINE  115 

structing  a  flying  machine  which  shall  fly  by 
virtue  of  its  own  motion. 

Meanwhile  in  America  Professor  Langley 
was  experimenting,  independently,  almost  on 
the  same  lines.  He  also  was  bent  on  producing 
a  flying  machine,  but  instead  of  starting  to  work 
upon  a  large  apparatus  like  Maxim,  he  began 
by  making  models,  and  gradually  worked  his 
way  up  to  bigger  things.  For  many  months 
he  studied  to  understand  the  principle  of  those 
ingenious  little  toys  sometimes  seen,  which,  by 
means  of  the  tension  of  a  twisted  india-rubber 
band,  will  keep  afloat  in  the  air  for  a  few 
seconds.  Next  he  constructed  small  models 
driven  by  steam,  in  which  he  found  his  great 
difficulty  was  in  keeping  down  the  weight. 
For  years  he  persevered  in  his  work  without 
any  great  success,  until  in  1896  he  produced 
a  model  machine  which  he  called  an  "  aero- 
drome." It  was  quite  small,  weighing  with 
its  engine  only  25  lbs.,  and  measuring  but 
14  feet  from  tip  to  tip  of  its  aeroplanes.  The 
experiments  were  made  over  water,  and  the 
necessary  momentum  was  given  by  dropping 
it  from  a  platform  20  feet  high.  On  more 
than  one  occasion  this  little  flying  machine 
rose  with  great  steadiness  in  the  face  of  the 
wind  to  a  height  of  100  feet,  moving  so 
smoothly  that  it  might  have  carried  a  glass 
of  water  without  spilling  a  drop;  and  then, 
the  steam  of  its  engine  being  exhausted,  sank 
down  gracefully  upon  the  water,  having  flown 


116       BALLOONS    AND    FLYING   MACHINES 

about  half  a  mile  in  a  minute  and  a  half. 
This  success  encouraged  Professor  Langley 
next  to  construct  a  full-sized  flying  machine 
on  the  same  lines  ;  but  this  on  its  first  voyage 
plunged  headlong  into  the  water  and  was  hope- 
lessly damaged.  The  United  States  Govern- 
ment have  since  granted  him  a  sum  of  money 
to  continue  his  experiments. 

Latest  of  all  the  airship  inventors,  and 
perhaps  so  far  the  most  successful,  are  the 
brothers  Wright.  Up  to  the  date  of  writing 
this  the  full  details  of  their  work  are  not  yet 
made  public,  but  it  is  known  that  on  the  17th 
of  December  1903,  their  machine,  which  con- 
sists of  two  large  aeroplanes  driven  forward  by 
an  engine  of  sixteen  horse-power,  after  being 
started  along  a  short  track  on  level  ground, 
rose  into  the  air  and  flew  for  about  half  a 
mile. 

It  remains  for  us  now  to  make  brief  mention 
of  how  men  have  tried,  and  are  still  trying,  to 
imitate  the  soaring  or  gliding  flight  of  birds 
without  the  use  of  machinery  to  assist  them. 
We  have  seen  how  an  albatross  can,  when  the 
wind  is  blowing,  convert  itself,  as  it  were,  into 
a  kite,  and  keep  aloft  in  the  air  for  a  while 
without  moving  its  wings.  Similarly  many 
people  have  attempted,  by  attaching  them- 
selves to  a  large  supporting  surface  or  aero- 
plane, and  casting  themselves  off  from  a 
height,  to  glide  with  the  wind  across  wide 
stretches  of  country.     In  this  mode  of  soaring 


THE    FLYING    MACHINE  117 

flight  some  have  made  considerable  progress. 
Herr  Lilienthal,  a  German,  was  perhaps  for  a 
time  the  most  successful.  He  started  from 
small  beginnings,  jumping  off  a  spring  board 
a  few  feet  high,  and  gradually  increasing  the 
height  as  he  became  more  accustomed  to  his 
apparatus.  Later  he  had  a  large  artificial 
mound  made  specially  for  him,  and  from  the 
top  of  this  he  would  throw  himself  into  the 
air,  and  with  a  favourable  wind  sail  a  distance 
of  four  hundred  yards  at  a  considerable  height 
above  the  ground.  Lilienthal's  experiments, 
however,  came  to  a  sad  end.  On  August  the 
11th,  1896,  after  he  had  glided  along  in  the  air 
for  about  two  hundred  yards,  a  sudden  gust  of 
wind  caught  the  wide-spread  wings  of  his 
apparatus,  and  tilted  it  upwards.  This  caused 
him  to  lose  his  balance,  and  he  fell  from  a 
height  of  sixty  feet  and  broke  his  spine.  A 
similar  accident  also  caused  the  death,  a  few 
years  later,  of  a  young  Englishman,  Mr. 
Percy  S.  Pilcher,  who  had  been  following  up 
Lilienthal's  experiments. 

The  greatest  difficulty  now  to  be  overcome 
in  solving  the  problem  of  human  flight,  whether 
with  soaring  apparatus  or  flying  machine,  may 
be  summed  up  in  one  word — "balance."  Every 
schoolboy  knows  that  the  great  art  of  kite- 
flying consists  in  so  adjusting  the  point  of 
attachment  of  the  string  and  the  length  of 
the  tail  that  his  kite  is  properly  balanced,  and 
is  not  liable  to  turn  over  or  "dip"  when  in 


118       BALLOONS    AND   FLYING   MACHINES 

the  air.  Every  observer  of  birds,  too,  has 
noticed  how  largely  the  question  of  balance 
enters  into  their  flying.  A  bird  in  the  air  is 
continually  and  instinctively  adjusting  its 
wings  to  its  position,  and  to  every  puff  of 
wind,  even  as  a  man  on  a  bicycle  is  con- 
tinually, though  unconsciously,  adjusting  his 
handle-bar  to  the  inequalities  of  the  road ; 
and  as  a  cyclist  requires  practice  before  he 
can  ride  his  machine,  or  a  skater  before  he 
can  keep  his  feet  on  the  ice,  so  even  a  bird 
has  to  learn  how  to  balance  itself  before  it 
can  use  its  wings. 

Dwellers  in  the  country  are  familiar  with 
the  way  in  which  the  parent  birds  teach  their 
fledglings  to  fly,  instructing  them  by  example, 
and  encouraging  them  in  their  first  short  flights 
until  they  have  become  familiar  with  their 
powers  and  can  balance  themselves  aright  in 
the  air.  And  if  even  birds,  with  whom  flying 
is  an  instinct,  have  to  learn  the  art  of  balancing 
themselves  in  the  air  by  practice,  how  much 
more  so  must  such  a  clumsy  creature  as  a 
man,  to  whom  flying  is  entirely  unnatural. 
Only  by  long  and  painful  efforts  can  he  ever 
hope  to  succeed  at  all,  and  unfortunately  all 
such  efforts  are  necessarily  very  danger- 
ous. Many  disastrous  accidents  have  already 
occurred,  and  although  great  progress  has 
been  made,  and  the  time  may  not  now 
be  far  distant  when,  by  means  of  improved 
machines,    men    will     actually    fly,    it     will 


CONCLUSION  119 

be  at  the  cost  of  much  labour,  and,  it  is  to 
be  feared,  at  the  sacrifice  of  many  more 
brave  lives. 


CHAPTER  VIII 

CONCLUSION 

In  our  last  chapters  we  have,  in  some  measure, 
brought  our  aeronautical  history  up  to  the 
present  day,  though  of  necessity  many  im- 
portant points  and  notable  voyages  have  been 
passed  over  unnoticed.  It  now  remains  to  us 
but  to  gather  up  the  loose  ends  of  the  story, 
and  then  briefly  to  indicate  the  direction  in 
which  we  may  expect  new  advances  in  the 
future. 

And,  first  of  all,  it  may  be  well  to  mention 
a  few  ballooning  "  records."  The  largest 
balloon  ever  known  was  used  as  a  captive 
at  the  Paris  Exhibition  of  1878.  It  was  of 
883,000  cubic  feet  capacity,  and  capable  of 
lifting  more  than  fifty  passengers  at  a  time. 
Other  mammoth  balloons  of  almost  as  great 
dimensions  have  also  been  employed  for  captive 
work;  but  the  largest  balloon  intended  specially 
for  "  right  away "  ascents  was  the  "  Giant," 
built  in  Paris  in  1863  by  M.  Nadar.  It  held 
215,000  cubic  feet  of  gas,  and  was  made  of 
22,000  yards  of  best  white  silk,  at  5s.  4d.  a 


120       BALLOONS    AND    FLYING   MACHINES 

yard.  The  car  was  particularly  elaborate, 
almost  as  big  as  a  small  cottage,  being  of 
two  stories,  and  divided  into  several  rooms. 
It  proved,  however,  to  be  a  very  dangerous 
adjunct,  for  on  the  two  occasions  it  was 
used  those  within  received  very  serious  injury 
during  rough  landings,  and  it  was  soon  put 
aside  and  replaced  by  an  ordinary  basket. 
None  of  these  monster  sky  craft  appear  to 
have  been  very  successful,  and  at  the  present 
day  the  largest  balloons  in  general  use  do  not 
exceed  50,000  or  60,000  cubic  feet  capacity. 

The  honour  of  the  longest  aerial  voyage 
ever  made  rests  with  the  unfortunate  Andree, 
who,  if  his  dates  are  to  be  relied  upon,  had 
been  forty-eight  hours  aloft  in  his  balloon 
when  he  despatched  his  last  found  message. 
Not  far  behind  in  point  of  time,  however,  was 
Count  de  la  Vaulx,  who  in  the  summer  of 
1901  attempted  to  cross  the  Mediterranean  by 
balloon.  Contrary  winds  in  the  end  baffled 
his  venture,  and  he  was  forced  to  descend  on 
the  deck  of  a  steamer  which  was  following  his 
course,  but  not  before  he  had  spent  forty-one 
hours  in  the  sky.  The  year  previous  the  Count 
had  also  achieved  a  record  long-distance  voyage 
in  connection  with  some  balloon  competitions 
held  during  the  French  "Exposition  "  of  1900. 
Starting  from  Paris,  he  descended  in  Russia, 
1193  miles  away,  having  been  aloft  thirty-six 
hours  all  but  fifteen  minutes. 

For  lofty  ascents  the  palm  still  rests  with 


CONCLUSION  121 

Glaisher  and  Coxwell,  whose  famous  voyage 
of  1862,  when,  as  related,  a  height  of  37,000 
feet  (or  seven  miles)  is  said  to  have  been 
reached,  has  never  been  equalled.  The  exact 
altitude  attained  on  this  occasion  is,  however, 
as  we  have  explained,  only  conjectural,  neither 
being  capable  at  the  last  of  taking  observa- 
tions, and  no  height  being  registered  over 
29,000  feet.  On  July  31st,  1901,  two  German 
scientists,  Dr.  Berson  and  Dr.  Suring,  ascended 
from  Berlin  to  a  registered  altitude  of  34,400 
feet,  or  well  over  six  miles.  They  were  pro- 
vided with  compressed  oxygen  to  breathe,  but 
even  then  became  unconscious  during  the  last 
800  feet  of  the  ascent.  Three  years  before  Dr. 
Berson  had  made  a  very  lofty  ascent  in  England, 
accompanied  by  Mr.  Stanley  Spencer,  when 
a  height  of  27,500  feet  was  reached.  A  terrible 
accident  occurred  in  connection  with  a  lofty 
scientific  ascent  made  from  Paris  in  1875  by 
Tissandier,  inventor  of  the  airship  already 
mentioned,  and  two  companions.  Their  ob- 
ject was  to  attain  a  record  height,  in  which 
they  indeed  succeeded,  reaching  28,000  feet. 
But  despite  the  artificial  air  they  took  with 
them  to  breathe,  they  all  three  became  un- 
conscious in  the  extreme  upper  regions,  and 
when,  after  one  of  the  most  awful  voyages 
in  the  whole  history  of  ballooning,  Tissandier 
came  to  himself,  it  was  to  find  the  bodies  of 
his  two  friends  stiff  and  cold  beside  him  in 
the  car. 


122       BALLOONS    AND   FLYING   MACHINES 

Coming  to  the  aeronautical  work  of  the 
present  day,  it  is  humiliating  to  have  to 
confess  that,  through  lack  of  public  support, 
England  has  somewhat  fallen  behind  other 
nations.  In  America  and  on  the  Continent 
large  sums  of  money  are  subscribed  for  ex- 
periments with  balloons,  airships,  and  flying 
machines ;  but  in  our  own  country  all  efforts  in 
these  directions  are  due  to  private  enterprise 
alone.  Among  those  most  keenly  interested 
in  aeronautical  progress  may  be  mentioned 
Mr.  P.  Alexander,  of  Bath ;  Major  Baden- 
Powell,  President  of  the  English  Aeronauti- 
cal Society ;  and  the  Rev.  J.  M.  Bacon.  The 
latter  has  made  many  scientific  balloon  ascents 
for  the  study  of  meteorology,  acoustics,  and 
other  kindred  sciences,  and  his  observations 
have  proved  of  much  interest  and  value. 
During  his  voyages  he  has  met  with  several 
adventures,  though  no  serious  mishaps.  On 
one  occasion,  when  the  writer  accompanied 
him,  during  a  night  ascent  made  to  observe 
the  great  shower  of  Leonid  shooting  stars 
foretold  for  the  16th  of  November  1899, 
the  balloon  became  unmanageable  while  lost 
above  the  clouds.  For  ten  hours  it  refused 
to  come  down,  during  much  of  which  time 
the  sea  was  heard  beneath,  and  the  voyagers 
believed  themselves  blown  out  over  the  At- 
lantic. A  very  stormy  landing,  in  which  the 
writer  broke  her  arm,  was  eventually  made  near 
the  coast  in  South  Wales  as  before  mentioned. 


CONCLUSION  123 

In  November  1902,  Mr.  Bacon,  accom- 
panied by  Mr.  Percival  Spencer,  crossed  the 
Irish  Channel  by  balloon,  the  second  time 
only  this  dangerous  passage  has  been  made, 
the  first  occasion  being  the  voyage  of  Mr. 
Windham  Sadler,  eighty-five  years  before. 
Mr.  Bacon's  voyage  was  partly  undertaken  for 
the  Admiralty,  who  lent  the  services  of  a  gun- 
boat to  follow  the  balloon's  course  over  the 
sea.  One  of  the  special  objects  of  investiga- 
tion was  to  test  a  theory,  long  held,  that  from 
a  considerable  height  aloft  the  bottom  of  the 
sea  becomes  visible,  even  in  rough  weather 
when  the  surface  is  troubled  with  waves. 
This  point  was  very  successfully  settled,  for 
although  the  sea  was  very  rough,  Mr.  Bacon 
not  only  saw,  but  succeeded  in  photographing, 
from  a  height  of  600  feet,  the  beds  of  sand  and 
rock  lying  in  ten  fathoms  at  the  bottom  of 
the  Irish  Channel — a  feat  never  before  accom- 
plished. 

In  scientific  observations  of  the  upper 
atmosphere  a  valuable  ally  to  the  balloon 
has  been  found  in  the  kite.  The  making  of 
kites  has  now  reached  a  high  pitch  of  per- 
fection, and  by  their  means  self-recording 
scientific  instruments  can  be  raised  to  vast 
heights  in  the  air,  and  even  men  carried  aloft 
with  safety.  A  kite  which  latterly  has 
excited  much  attention  is  the  Cody  kite. 
With  this,  during  the  autumn  of  1903,  its 
inventor,  a   Mexican,  hazarded  a   bold   ven- 


124       BALLOONS    AND    FLYING    MACHINES 

ture.  Harnessing  it  to  a  light  boat,  and 
waiting  for  a  favourable  wind,  he  started 
from  Calais  at  eight  o'clock  one  November 
evening,  and  was  safely  towed  all  night  across 
the  Channel,  reaching  Dover  at  five  the  next 
morning. 

The  aeronautical  competitions  at  the  St. 
Louis  Exhibition,  in  America,  have  given 
a  great  impetus  to  one  branch  at  least  of 
aeronautics,  while  the  labour  of  many 
scientific  workers  throughout  the  whole  world 
is  directed  to  the  improvement  of  our  present 
modes  of  exploring  the  heavens,  and  the 
turning  to  best  account  of  the  means  already 
at  our  disposal.  Never  since  the  days  when 
the  Montgolfier  brothers  floated  their  first 
frail  craft  has  so  much  interest  as  now  been 
manifested  in  the  conquest  of  the  sky,  and 
never  has  progress  been  more  rapid  and  sure. 
Whether  the  day  will  ever  come  when  man 
will  rule  the  atmosphere  as  he  now  does  the 
sea  is,  as  yet,  uncertain,  but  there  are  many 
who  hope  and  believe  not  only  that  he  will, 
but  that  the  day  is  not  far  distant  when  "the 
birds  will  no  longer  hold  undisputed  sway 
over  the  empire  of  the  air. 


Printed  by  Ballantyne,  Hanson  &*  Co. 
Edinburgh  <S^  London 


